In addition to this, I always enjoy helping newer investors navigate the funding side of things and do so on a daily basis with my company. 

I enjoy going to my favorite dive bar, Ledos, and pointing across the street at my 4 unit, and telling all of my buddies I own it.

We'll add him to the mailing list and he can just keep on enjoying our videos.

Budgeting to building a "work network" to making a checklist on they type of property you are looking for.Reading has become part of my daily habit, and enjoy exchanging ideas with people who are in the same position as us as well as people that are 10 steps ahead of us.Good luck with your success!

I also have some townhouses in Arlington but enjoy buying for cashflow way more.

I did determine there seems to be a need for Handymen however.I have a full time job now, but I really enjoy working on smaller home improvement projects. 

At your starting point I would recommend getting a job in real estate or construction management or exposing yourself to as many people in that field as you can.

If you have large amounts of cash coming from somewhere else and need a place to put it to work, and aren't concerned with buying more, more, more, then you probably want to buy all cash.Most people fall somewhere in the middle.Hubby and I have been debt free for many years and are truly enjoying that freedom.

Long-term, buy & hold is a great strategy - I've always been a firm believer that you have the upper hand with these properties in the investment field because you have the advantage of being first in an area then being able to wait for appreciation for whenever you want to sell "when the time is right".Often times, these rental properties also don't involve the full scale upgrades (less money out-right) that you would need in a traditional fix-&-flip in order to hit projected ARV's.The one draw-back here is out-sourcing your rentals to a property management company - which finding the right one for the right price can take some time to vet - or else managing the property yourself, in which case you will need to start building relationships with contractors to ensure proper repairs are being done and the needs of your tenants are being met.You can do buy & holds out of state easily, too, just find the right market that is land-lord friendly (for example, mid-west: Indiana), and I think its fair to say you could do well long-term with the right properties!

We got together when I was 18 and she was 19 and spent our money freely and never budgeted for several years until we decided we wanted to settle down, start a family and start planning for our future.I was able through persistence and luck to secure a lucrative job in the oil field around the time our first child was born.