About 10% of the agents do 90% of the real estate business. There's a cost to keeping the certification, including continuing education, etc. so if it's a hobby (selling a couple properties a year) it's basically a break even second job. The key is availability and the willingness to go show a property at 8am on a Sunday morning with a half hour notice - not always a possibility if on a trip. And then there's driving a couple around in your car for 2 months only for them to decide not to buy. My wife has a real estate license.

If we are talking about flipping houses, then I would do all cash deals ideally. If you don't have the cash, then you need some kind of line of credit or possibly a partner who's only duty will be $$$ but that requires a lot of trust (and experience on your part) otherwise look to other sources of non interest loans say from family.

If we are talking rental property, that means you are going to want to be cash flow positive. For that to happen, you need to put 35% down in order to charge competitive rents and still be cash flow positive. I always run the numbers on the conservative side. For example, if a single family house, then I always figure 1 month per year unrented. Or if we are talking about a 6 unit apartment building, I figure one unit is always unrented or undergoing remodeling etc..

The absolute best resource out there on the internet in my opinion is biggerpockets.com

On a side note, the one thing I have learned about flipping houses is this- it's best to flip houses in expensive neighborhoods, better margins! For example- whether we are talking a small house in a crappy neighborhood or a large house in an expensive neighborhood, a mid to premium kitchen covering say 700 square feet costs the same in both houses. But it drives far more value in the larger house for a variety of reasons. I could go on and on but this isn't the place.

Another consideration: Putting down more can reduce your return on cash...

There's a lot of good information in this entire post, but what I quoted is what I was just about to post. There's enough information there to cut about 7-10 years off the learning curve for a novice landlord/property investor.

In my (first hand) experience with this theory, I disagree. I had to find out the hard way though. I couldn't afford my first one and justified this approach to myself. Perhaps your financial situation is different than mine so your results may vary?

What you describe works great until your 3 year old furnace breaks, a 5 year old pressure tank bursts (when you are in BUF on an overnight and some idiot hits the side of your duplex with her car.

On paper it looks great! I agree. And I understand the theory especially with these interest rates we are seeing. It comes with it's own risk though.

I'll add that if you aren't personally wealthy, your ability to move on other good investments is non existent when you have no equity. It's just a risk that can actually slow down a persons financial progress.

There are differing schools of thought on this stuff and it depends on a lot of different variables that are unique to your own situation.:)

biggerpockets.com is an amazing resource. I'm a big fan of their podcast. I have my real estate license, its a good way to learn the industry and I get to make a commission when buying and selling (I work with a couple of investors flipping homes) I really do enjoy but like people have said you need some sort of large amount of cash/line of credit to really get started.