Advice on how to begin

[Jason Bishop]

Trying to get started with investing, and wanted to ask on advice on how and where to begin. Is using DSCR loans a great place to start for beginners? Thank you in advance for any feedback.

[Travis Main]

Hey Jason, 

Before anybody can really tell you whether DSCR loans are the right place to start, there's a lot of information that matters about your overall financial position and long-term goals.

A few of the biggest things I’d ask are:

What does your cash reserve position look like specifically allocated for investing
Are you currently a strong W2 earner or primarily self-employed?
How stable is your monthly income outside of real estate?
After buying a rental, how much liquidity would you realistically still have left?
If a property needed repairs, sat vacant, or had an unexpected expense, would you comfortably be able to cover it?

The reason I ask is because a lot of newer investors focus heavily on getting into their first property but don’t think enough about how they’re going to continue generating capital afterward.

For example, if somebody has strong reserves and a strong W2 income, they usually have a lot more flexibility to weather vacancies, hold long term, and continue scaling. But if somebody has limited reserves and modest income outside of real estate, tying up all their liquidity in one rental can sometimes put them in a tight position financially.

In situations where cash is lighter, sometimes starting with smaller cosmetic fix-and-flips can actually make sense because it allows you to build capital, experience, contractor relationships, and reserves much faster. Then when you transition into long-term rentals and DSCR financing later, you're operating from a much stronger financial position and not constantly worrying about your personal liquidity every time a repair comes up.