If you want to start investing in real estate and buy your first rental property, there are six beginner steps you’ll need to take. Following these steps to a tee could mean the difference between having a home-run first investment property and a horrible experience that leaves you worse off than before. So stick around as we lead you to your first property (and financial independence) faster, even if you’re an investing beginner.

We’ve brought on Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and personal finance master Kyle Mast to walk through the six steps you must take before buying a rental property. We’re not talking about the usual “find an agent, find a market, find a property” type of advice. This time, it’s all about setting you up for FINANCIAL success and, more importantly, stopping you from financial failure by making the wrong moves in the beginning. If you don’t get these steps down, you can kiss your dreams of financial freedom goodbye.

We’ll touch on how to define your investing goals to get what you REALLY want out of life, how to evaluate whether or not you’re even in a financial position to invest, how to fix your bad finances if they’re not up to shape, building a solid emergency reserve for when things go wrong, and what the experts say you NEED to know before you invest in 2024.