Keep it separate from personal expenses to maintain the veil and the liability protections. 

I’m saving up capital and keeping an eye out for deals to buy our next rental.

@Dan DeppenThe reasoning for the heavy handed regulation of consumer products and services is that consumers are not on equal footing with businesses as to experience, knowledge and expertise, may not have access to legal advice, are unsophisticated, and therefore in need of governmental consumer protection.

(It will sell, for sure, if priced correctly.)Of  course I would be doing everything legally to protect my license, etc. 

For a newbie is it safer to deal with a cash offer on the first property, seems to be a bit of downside protection to not having loan payments at the start.

You'll have to keep an eagle eye on the receipts, especially before you're full time.Bourne is certainly better than further down Cape - like Chatham or Wellfleet!

I suggest flying over to meet the people you're entrusting with your investment before cutting any checks, as looking someone in the eye (and seeing some of their handiwork) is still one of the best ways to suss out the scammers.Most of our clients are from OOS or even out of country, so we know from experience that it is a doable, viable strategy.

In a perfect world, I plan to live there for a few years then start renting it out while I move on to my next property, so I'm looking for an agent with an eye towards investing as well.

We have a single family house hack, my old house, that has opened our eyes to that various benefits of having rental property. 

I think basically the deal with ABQ is that there is very little growth and very little new inventory coming online, which means on the one hand you are protected from rising vacancy but on the other investment RE is expensive for what it is, as no new inventory comes online to push down prices.