Bought first three duplexes this year, not sure where to go from here

[Ryan Tongue]

Hi all,

I'm 23, bought my first three duplexes last fall (in a partnership, not the sole owner). I was in college at the time of investment and didn't have the bandwidth to take on a renovation, so all three properties were relatively straight forward: 20% down fixed 30-year, place a tenant, wait. 

My biggest takeaway from the experience is that we tied up a lot of capital for very little cash flow -- essentially, I don't feel that I put myself in a position to scale. I'd like for my next investment to be made with some sort of exit plan to recycle and reuse the capital put into it. I'd lean towards a BRRRR, but I certainly won't have enough capital to make a cash purchase for a while.

Where should I go next? Should I be looking at apartment complexes for better cash flow? Some sort of flip? I appreciate that it takes time to build passive income in real-estate, but I'm hoping there's a smarter way to go about it than saving up $50K to dump into a property that cash flows a few hundred a month. 

Would appreciate any advice regarding the direction I should go next. Another thing that might be an important factor is that I'm confident I could raise about $0.5mil in cash if I did want to bring on other investors who've expressed interest. 

Thank you,

Ryan

[Benjamin Aaker]

Don't forget about the equity you are building in each of your properties. That is often overlooked by people when judging how good of an investment is. I structure my investments to have lower cash flow and more equity build. This doesn't make a lot of money right now, but will in the future. That being said, multifamily has better economy of scale, but still you cannot expect big cash flow right away.