Costs to maintain these luxuries, however, eat away at the limited investment capital one has as a new investor.

In 27 years if you have some massive appreciation, and don't want to eat the tax bill, that's easy too - you just harvest out your profits at (hopefully!)

That's something that was eating at me honestly. 

You probably can't have your cake and eat it too.

It probably would help if you saved some money with wholesaling or being a Realtor so you can create a nest egg to use if needed.

Not every lender offers this, but it might be a way to have your cake and eat it too.Just doing back-of-the-napkin math - if your loan is a 30yr, 200K at 4.375%, then your P&I is around 999. 

Doing it yourself can be done, but requires time and energy or it will eat your lunch.

I've used hard money, credit cards, eating ramen for a year. 

You just get paid more for your "job" (including your profit) which only eats into the profit for the investor. 

Do you have a nest egg to start investing in real estate?