If I were in your position I would have my cake and eat it too.

If something works I'd buy, but I personally can't afford to eat the losses until rents catch up in the hot markets in the coastal cities.

In Option 1, you see a small galley kitchen that opens up to some informal eating situation (the "furniture" in the plans is just to get an idea of the room, by no means what it will necessarily look like), and then that room opens out into the living room area.

Investors are unlikely to pay you more for a property they could have purchased directly for less.Add to this the fact that, if you purchase the properties outright from the brokerage, you will have extra closing costs (the first purchase), loan fees and potentially other costs that eat into your margins.All-in-all, this doesn't sound like a good way to try to make money in this business...

Given the numbers/scenario here: Mortgage $1,750Rent Income $1,200Owner Payment $550Wouldn't the additional maintenance costs eat away at the rent income and make this a bad deal?

Isn't the turnover rate going to eat heavily into that 25% in a junkier area.

The 30-year mortgage allows more time for inflation to eat away at the real cost of the mortgage.

DON'T take HML rates for long term buy and hold because they are usually so high they eat up your profits.

What I derived from you and the rest of the comments mentioned is pretty much to eat this big elephant one bite at a time and not to get way over my head on my first property.

Also, property management will eat intomy profits.