Traditional financial planners make the bulk of their income from commissions on stocks and bonds, so real estate will often times get dumped into an "other" category that doesn't get the proper attention.In my experience, we did receive a lot of help from real estate agents that are able to help us with our upcoming transaction, HOWEVER, they aren't setup to support the overall plan design in a way that was centered around the most important financial kpis.  

-------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Cosmo - I personally don't know Phoenix well, but if I had to do this in another city I would look at income levels, crime levels, and population growth (if you can) by zip code and/or area within a DMA as a starting point.

Go straight into focusing on creative finance, subject to, and minimal cash down deals and build from there.I want to hear your thoughts on what direction to take here if you were in my shoes given these constraints (full time job and a few thousand saved) and you want to optimize for passive income first, then value appreciation?

You can work 40 hours for corporate and still have another 40+ hours to work on REI if you really want to.

Sorry for the tough love, but not buying the above.You & your wife's salaries should cover your expenses, while the income from your remodeling gigs should be saved.Recommend you review EVERY dollar you made and what you spent it on in 2024.

I'm looking at monthly cost to seller vs. anticipated rental income, purchase price relevant to the ARV of the area and interest rate, balloon, etc.

In the meantime learn and figure out how to increase income/savings.

Great rental income, strong FICO, low LTV (60% or below), strong liquidity and PFS.

The tax savings could be larger than the regular income.