Strategy/Math question about snowballing loans and best plan

[Jeff Isaacs]

I'm trying to figure out the best overall strategy (I'm an attorney so can't do math lol). Say, for example, you have $500k. Let's say you find 4 $100k properties, that all have the same pita/rent/etc numbers, keeping $100k in reserve. What's the safest way to accelerate things? Buy one for cash and the others with loans? Buy two for cash and the other two (and/or more) with loans? Buy all with loans and have the cash on hand just in case there's a huge problem? The idea being to use all profits/cash flow to snowball the loans with the profits from the others. All loans would seem to defeat the snowball plan though . The plan Ideally is to acquire properties faster but also safer. I've seen too many people get overextended and lose it all, but I also don't have 30 years to wait for something to get paid off. Ps I would not house hack or flip or anything like that. This would be for a more long term strategy. Pps could also use salary to supplement mortgage payments, fwiw. Thanks! 

[Aaron Zimmerman]

Jeff - why not buy bigger properties with the $500k you have total. It’s counterintuitive but generally the better quality real estate you buy, the likelihood of success increases. Why not buy two $500k places and be 60% leveraged? One other comment on the reserves. Obviously they’re important but I think have $100k for 4 properties would be quite conservative. I think a more realistic number is $10-15k on higher priced homes If you’re trying to drive cash flow, may I recommend rent by the room, STR, or MTR or a combination thereof if it works In your area? I totally understand wanting to pay debt off quicker but why not scale to a safe level and then you can de leverage? Once you pay off loans, I’d look to pay off the one with the highest interest rate