A big expense item is water and sewer be sure to work that in. I

I live in queens NY which is way overpriced and I’m looking to see what other areas in the northeast people are investing rental properties in. I

If you find a good, discounted deal that you can really generate some equity in, I would sell it and use the flip income to fuel the purchase of already stable, cash flowing properties. 

That being said, I like locking in long term, just to eliminate risk of loans coming due at a bad time.ya I really do cringe when folks are buying rentals on 5 7 10 year balloons.. that did not end well in the GFC.when U have all these fence sitters waiting for the crash to happen.. been waiting now what 3 plus years.. what they don't realize is when it does crash or we hit a recession period.. credit will be very tough.. most of those waiting wont be able to get a loan anyway as credit will be very very tough.. just like 09 to 2011 it was near impossible to get an investor loan.. so really all the fence sitters better be sitting on a boat load of cash if they think they are going to swoop in..  I

When it comes to real estate, I plan to have a pool of money I can safely swim in. I

Here we are about 1month and half in, and still don’t have any tenants in. I

Personally if the other two apartments covered almost all costs of the entire property and you can have housing for almost no cost, I would save my money and wait till you get local and find another investment property because having 60k or more cash in this market could be 20% easily on a property you dont live in. I

He's getting close to having 10 properties so he's got a good foot in. I

@Annie Irizari - Starting with a Duplex in the area that you are in or someone close to you is in - is the right first step.

What state are you in? I