[Xist]

The millennials that I watch on YouTube say to:
1. Live within your means.
2. Save up for 3.5% down on a modest house--ideally new paint and other cosmetic, but not structural, improvements.
3. Assuming this is your new primary residence and your living costs have not increased substantially:
4. Save up for 3.5% down on another modest house with the same criteria.
5. Buy the house and rent it out for market value.
6. Repeat 4 and 5 as much as you can safely.

Even if you can afford nice things, they say your money is better invested.

They regularly talk about how you can limit your tax liability. In this case, it encourages affordable housing, but I am confident there are many other scenarios.

I kind of like Homestead Home's approach, buy a dire fixer-upper cheaply, and, would you believe? Fix it up?

He pays about the same amount in cash that other people might pay for a down payment. If they both spend the same amount to make it rentable (with Homestead Home doing all of the work himself), HH may own a house worth $100,000 for $30,000, but if he spends six months or a year renovating it, he is really a repairman that happens to own several properties. I do not believe that I have done the math, but I would think that you could grow faster buying good houses than buying trashed ones and remodeling them.

However, I do not feel there is anything special about the easy approach, but I think that taking a shell of a house, and turning it into a home takes real skill.