If you’ve been thinking about getting into real estate, here’s one strategy I think more people should understand. Instead of starting by purchasing a single-family home, consider purchasing a 2–4 unit property and living in one of the units. Why 2–4 units? Because properties with up to four units can still qualify as residential property for FHA financing, and qualified borrowers may be able to purchase with as little as 3.5% down, as long as they meet FHA requirements and use the property as their primary residence. Now let’s put some numbers behind the strategy. Let’s say you purchase a duplex. You live in one unit and rent the other. For simplicity, let’s say your total monthly mortgage payment is $1,600 and you’re able to rent the second unit for $1,600 per month. The mistake would be looking at that $1,600 coming in every month and thinking, “Now I have extra money to spend.” That’s not the strategy. If you were already prepared to pay $1,600 every month for housing, continue putting that money aside. $1,600 x 12 months = $19,200. Now, real estate isn’t perfect math. You’re going to have expenses. There can be repairs, maintenance, vacancies, insurance increases, taxes, utilities and other costs. So I’m not saying you’re automatically going to have exactly $19,200 sitting in the bank after one year. The point is that instead of carrying your entire housing expense yourself, you now own an asset that is producing income and helping offset your housing costs. Meanwhile, you’re intentionally saving and preparing for the next property. And that’s where this becomes a strategy instead of simply owning a duplex. Your next purchase might be another duplex, a triplex or eventually a four-unit property. Let’s say you eventually acquire a four-unit property and each unit rents for $1,300 per month. That’s: $1,300 x 4 units = $5,200 per month. $5,200 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in gross rental income. But pay attention to the word gross. That does NOT mean you made $62,400.

I’ve been building something behind the scenes, and I think it’s time I actually start talking about it. It’s called DreamFlyte — Your Co-Pilot in Business. And it came from something I kept noticing: Entrepreneurs have access to more information than ever before…but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know what to do next. You can have 47 saved TikToks, three AI subscriptions, a folder full of business templates, a half-finished business plan, six tabs open about funding, and 12 ideas sitting in your Notes app… …and still be sitting there thinking: “Okay, but what should I actually be doing right now?” That’s the problem I wanted DreamFlyte to help solve. DreamFlyte is a members-only business platform designed for people at different stages of entrepreneurship — whether you’re trying to turn an idea into an actual business, you’ve started making money but everything still feels like a hustle, you’re trying to build real systems and grow, or you have years of professional expertise and you’re figuring out how to turn that knowledge into something of your own.