However, one should save in advance for such an adventure, rather than borrow against the future.

Gives me a bad feeling the more I look around haha, it's not ghetto by any means but it's not necessarily promising either....somewhat of a gamble in my eyes.My basic plan of attack: I'd like to attempt house hacking initially, get a feel for owning a house, renting things out, and working it that way.

I wouldn't suggest gambling.

. ;)My plan as of now is to sell and keep the equity for a better cheaper deal another day.I'm really looking forward to getting involved in this new adventure (someday) and learning from this great community.Cheers,Alistair

Good luck in your adventure!

It is not practical in Ontario to gamble on increasing rents to improve returns when purchasing larger properties. 

I know I took a gamble with this and unfortunately it did not come back to bite me.  

If you go with the ARM you're buying a big gamble for $2k.

It's a gamble not to mention hurricane season is around the corner.

the safest way is to just work like a maniac basically do your regular job and do REI as well, you will be putting in 50-70 hours a week but its safer than gambling that your REI will take off right away.