Hi All,As I look at my options to finance my first RE deal, I was researching the early withdrawal penalty from TSP (Federal equivalent to 401K) and just learned that I can take out a TSP loan with no penalty, no tax impact and just have to pay it off with interest (seems to be 4-5% range right now) within 60 months. 

Good advice by @Eric GerakosAssuming for a second it’s worth doing, remind him his broker price of 500 will be lessened by the 40k commission, and the bank will be making the money off the loan, not him.So try for 460-480 with as low a down payment as he can stomach and offer to split that payment into upfront and 3-6 months later.

For our previous investment properties we used a home equity loan and cash to buy and paid it off in a few years. 

when I learned to fly we hoped right in I got in the left seat and very first flight I managed the take off and even landed fairly decently. so yes you do learn on the job so to speak.

What I'm wondering is can we have these 3 properties qualify as a business, with all the write offs that come along with owning a rental business.

The earlier you start in your RE journey, the better off you will be in the future.3.

This is rarely the case - it could be a bad deal for numerous reasons from bad sponsor, to bad management to bad economic conditions.

I have received several off market duplexes in the last few weeks predominantly in north Nashville around the 350k range but they all needed some level of renovation. 

I own five acres of land that is paid off.

You should be able to live a couple months on a credit card or have a paid off car you can sell.