@Ari Bildner about the only change I'd suggest is to up your Vacancy to 8% since that'll give you about a month's rent saved up each year (1/12 = 8.33%)

I also have 20k saved and have brought In about 1300 this month with AirBnB.

@Laila Ea Looks like several of your expenses are under-estimated, vacancy should be about 8% to give you 1 month of rent saved up each year, CapX of 5% seems low, typically that would be around 10%, and management of 4% is definitely low, usually companies charge you around 10%.

So options 2 or 3 are appealing in that sense, but I am trying to figure out if either of those would make sense given that the monthly payment would go from $1,450 to probably around $3K or more, making it a) hard to afford and b) even harder to save/grow our portfolio.

Point is, how much would I realistically need to save up to acquire my first rental property?

PITI: $1,200.5% Down Payment of $163,000 Purchase Price.Property Appraised for $190,000 right out the gate.Originally paid Gas/Water for both units and electric for 1 side, but am in process of switching electric over to new tenant, which should save $140-160/mo.

FHA 3.5% Sales Price Cash After closing fees $305,000.00 $15,000.00 $430,000.00 $127,000.00 Monthly PITI Average 4 Bedroom Rent Realized Rent Savings 2.5 Years Repair Cost $2,500.00 $2,800.00 $9,000.00 $27,500.00 Total Money Invested (Repair Cost+Downpayment)-Rent Savings ROI: Gains from investment-Cost/Cost $33,500.00 280%

Thinking I could save money by doing everything myself.

I’ve always had a good grasp on saving money but never knew where I wanted to put it.

He recently purchase a nissan tundra because he said it saves him money on picking up materials and quotes from general contractor.