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Does this sound like a great idea regarding being a landlord and starting a real estate empire?
This is a well worn path and not a bad idea.  There are quite a few pitfalls but there are a lot of resources to learn for other people's mistakes. Having a plan and doing your research should help you avoid most of them.  Here is some general advice to help get you started on the right foot.  Know the market you are investing in.  The city should have more than one major employer. The population should be rising and hopefully there are other positive economic indicators.  Check the city's and state's chamber of commerce for useful information.  You do not want to be stuck holding a bunch of upside down property in Detroit.   Accurately calculate expenses.  Set aside money for repairs.  budget 5% of the rent or 100 a month for repairs if no repairs happen that money goes into the repair fund for the future.  Set aside money for capital expenditures if the roof has a 10 years of life left in 10 years you better be ready to replace it same with any major appliances. Your area should have a baseline vacancy rate 5-8% in my area. That says out of a year your property will be vacant for around 6% of the year or 21 days for turnover. You should build that cushion into the budget as well setting aside a portion of the rent to cover that lean period. Some property management will offer "eviction insurance" which is basically them enforcing that savings.  Financing maybe difficult a lot of banks like to see 25% down payments on investments. You will also face higher interest rates for investment properties. Banks generally also like to see enough money to cover 6 months worth of expenses in your account for all property.  Some banks will not give financing for investment property to someone without 1-2 years of landlord experience. All in all finding money will be hard when you gets started and your terms may be less than ideal.  (hopefully make around 3 - 5k a year in profit)  If that includes loan pay-down and is not just cash-flow you are probably in the right ballpark.  I can find $100-$200 dollars cash-flow a month on single family home in my area. Once loan pay-down is included your numbers are close.  It sounds like you have a good attitude and a good plan.  A book that I really enjoyed and I think may be useful is "Start Small, Profit Big in Real Estate" by Jay DeCima.  I think of it as required reading for do-it-yourself real estate investors. Good luck and happy investing