@Susan Grayson, REI is a fantastic vehicle to financial freedom, but new investors should understand the game a little more before tackling complicated projects.I wish you do well in REI, and learn as much as you can from small-simple properties before placing a large sum of money on bigger projects.Best wishes

Guess on to the savings game again haha.

Johnny, definitely use a separate bank account for your income and expenses and use some sort of software to track your transactions.

Instead, I was able to put down 5%, or $12,000, allowing me to get into the game considerably faster. 

@Kim Hopkins The costar software is very elaborate, and does show multi-tenant or single tenant.

Its amazing people were getting so much money for homes back then with no skin in the game. 

Great summary of the necessary groundwork needed to get in the game.

But your home where you raise your children is a different ball game.

If so, and you are in second position, if the buyer defaults on the primary mortgage and the lender forecloses, your second position will be wiped out and you will be left with nothing.The fact that the buyer has no actual skin in this game at all, because you are financing the downpayment, seems risky to me.  

If your long game is to hold, then generally speaking, I feel like a good tenant is worth more than a half to full month's rent.