I have a colleague that's been investing in the Tacoma market for single family homes to buy and hold for the past 10 years.

I'm interested in retail flip potential properties, no buy and holds.

:1)Find an investor who would double as a source of money for down payment and a cosigner2)Use an FHA loan (3.5% down if I live in a unit) to buy a quad-plex3)Use the 203k aspect of the loan to improve the quad-plex and force appreciation in the property4)Refinance in a year or two to a regular loan and pull equity out to either pay off my outside investor or use equity for another down payment on another quad-plex5)Repeat With this plan, I believe I will be able to cash flow from day one because I will be able to rent out three units to college students around campus who are willing to pay higher rents than most.

I have decided I would like to get into some buy and holds that cashflow.

I am looking at investing in buy and hold niche (multy family apartments).

I'm a helper at heart and a total newbie...I've been talking with a gentleman that has a rental property I'm interested in for buy/hold.

Generally speaking, however, it is more financially prudent to simply have the plan hold title to the asset.

My idea of getting into real estate investing was coming up with 20% of your own money (that's 60k where I live for a low end property), traditional residential mortgage, net maybe $200 a month if I was lucky and repeat the process when I came up with another 20% until I had maybe 40 properties.

A buy and hold, cash flow deal is probably the best fit for me, but I'm open to other suggestions and opportunities as well. 

This will allow you to hold on to your savings for making your first non-owner occupied purchase.