It seems there’s a common misconception largely influenced by social media, online courses, and influencers who oversimplify the process that real estate is an easy, passive way to generate income with minimal effort.

Why not just save for the downpayment and work on increasing income to qualify for a traditional loan?

Do you have other ways to decrease your expenses or increase your income aside from real estate? 

The 3 of them will gross closer to 4K, net about 3K, per month. 

@Jemini LeckieRecommend 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?

Long story short, you spend a month cleaning and renovating, then you find a new tenant after just 15 days.In total, you lost three months of rent income ($3,000) plus paying utilities ($500).

Currently, my strategy is to rent to section 8 tenants for the guaranteed income.

STR income: $160K/year.

You could also use a listing-only service from a brokerage where you'd pay them $200-$300 to list it on the MLS, and you/your team would take all incoming calls from interested buyers, but it's a bit slimy since the seller may see it listed on the market when you appeared to be buying it.That would be the maximum value-capture of your off-market lead machine.

Building a rental portfolio that replaces your income takes years and a lot of effort, this is especially true in our high price high interest rate market.You need to have at least a 10 year vision when buying real estate.