He knows more than I ever could and has access to tons of buyers as well as the MLS and other marketing tools that I don’t.

You can get into your first property with as little as 3-3.5% down but when you factor in closing costs, attorney fee, inspection, appraisal and miscellaneous expenses, you're looking at an ALL-IN 10% up front expense for your first deal.In addition to boosting your buying power through saving and building your credit, you should also be building your network.

The risk is much less when you can cash flow, I just think appreciation, at least in a market like mine, is super powerful for scalability.

Never underestimate the power of local relationships, boots on the ground agents, and intimate local market knowledge!

But yeah, once the COVID regulations went in and the federal government claimed that kind of power for itself through the CDC, the outcomes didn't need a crystal ball to be correctly predicted.

ThanksLee I beleive that is definitely a risk.I stopped worrying about rankings when my house was consistently booked solid for top dollar.I do use the tools on Vrbo where I can use points to move my property up in the search results for unbooked dates.

If you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

@Trae JonesThere are online tools that calculate costs based on area

Then add in the winter storm in Feb where there was record cold temps for a record setting duration and add in power outages.  8 units with frozen pipe related issues some with expensive emergency repairs.  

To me, real estate investing is the best tool to financial freedom.