This post kicks off our 10-part series on rental real estate investing. Over the past two decades, working with mentors and fellow investors, we’ve developed and refined an approach that’s worked well for our family—not just in terms of financial results, but in how it’s supported the life we wanted to build. Our goal in sharing this series is to walk through that approach, step by step, offering insights, lessons learned, and some structure for others looking to follow a similar path.

In this first part, we’re focusing on the starting point: defining your investment strategy. It may sound like a formality, but in our experience, clearly identifying your goals and making sure your strategy supports them is what sets the foundation for everything that comes next.

Why Strategy Matters

Before buying a property, running numbers, or following trends, it’s worth stepping back to ask: why are you doing this? For many individual investors, rental real estate is a way to create more stability—financially and personally—and to build something tangible that complements or even replaces more traditional investments.

For us, the goal was always achieving long-term financial independence early in life, built on a relatively steady income stream (and not on property sales or cash-out refinancings of our portfolio). We weren’t aiming for a quick exit or a high-risk, high-reward model. Instead, we wanted to create enough reliable income to support our living expenses and allow for flexibility in how we spend our time. Just as important, we wanted to involve our children in this business, to give them early exposure to ownership and financial decision-making, and ideally, to offer them options they might not otherwise have.

That’s a big reason why we’ve always preferred a slower, steadier approach over speculation or short-term plays. We’ve never been focused on flipping properties or chasing rapid appreciation. While those strategies may work for others, they weren’t a good fit for our goals or risk tolerance. In addition, what we wanted was a path to financial freedom that didn’t require us to make annual withdrawal decisions from a retirement account while hoping the market cooperated.

And with that clarity came a sense of calm and purpose. We didn’t have to constantly evaluate new trends or wonder whether we were missing out. We just had to stay on our path.

Choosing a Model That Fits

Of course, strategy only matters if it connects to something concrete. That’s where your investment model comes in. For us, that meant focusing on residential rentals with one to four units. These types of properties are generally manageable for individual investors, fit well with traditional financing, can provide for a level of geographic diversification and allowed us to learn and grow without taking on more than we could handle.

We’ve also chosen to stick with properties that are either rent-ready or need only modest improvements. While there can be upside in severely distressed properties, we’ve found that the risks—unexpected costs, renovation delays, or unclear reasons behind the distress—can outweigh the benefits unless you’re truly experienced, know that specific market in and out (including street by street neighborhood dynamics) and have the time and resources to manage them well.

Our tenant base tends to be working families—people looking for dependable housing in clean, well-kept properties. That’s a group we’ve found to be relatively consistent and aligned with the type of long-term relationships we want with tenants.

At different points, we’ve asked ourselves whether we might shift to larger multifamily properties. That may be the right next step for some investors, but we’ve treated it as a strategic question, not an automatic progression. The key is making those decisions with intention, based on your comfort level, resources, and what kind of business you want to run.

Planning with Realism

Once your overall approach is clear, the next step is building a plan around it—one that reflects your capacity, your goals, and your time horizon. That might mean setting acquisition targets, modeling out expected income, or defining how much time you want to spend actively managing properties.

We’ve found that conservative assumptions tend to serve best. That means being realistic about potential cash flow, accounting for vacancy, maintenance, larger capital replacements and the general “unexpected,” and recognizing your current financial position. If you’re working with limited liquidity or your credit needs improvement, that doesn’t mean you can’t move forward—it just means you need a plan to address those things.

Financing plays a central role in most real estate portfolios, and it’s worth taking the time to prepare. That might involve increasing documented income, paying down debt, or boosting your credit score. These aren’t overnight fixes, but they make a meaningful difference in what kind of deals and terms you can access.

Staying Grounded Through the Ups and Downs

Even with a solid plan, challenges will come up. There will be vacancies, surprise repairs, tough tenants, and changing regulations. In those moments, it’s easy to second-guess your strategy or look for a quick pivot. That’s why we recommend writing your strategy down—your goals, your reasons, and your intended path—and referring back to it when things get tough.

For us, this simple step has been a powerful anchor. It reminds us why we started, helps us see beyond the moment, and gives us confidence that we’re still on the right path—even if this week or month doesn’t go as planned.

Making Sure Everyone’s on the Same Page

If you’re investing with a spouse, partner, or family member, alignment is critical. Real estate requires time, effort, and capital, and it can affect other areas of life. Being clear about each person’s role, expectations, and vision helps prevent misunderstandings and builds a stronger team.

In our case, real estate has been a family business- for my wife, me and our children. We’ve tried to be intentional about sharing responsibilities, keeping communication open, and making sure we all understand the long-term goals. That shared understanding has helped us stay committed and collaborative over the years.

What’s Next

Setting your investment strategy isn’t just a box to check—it’s a reference point you’ll return to again and again. The more clearly you define it upfront, the easier it becomes to stay focused and make better decisions over time.

In the next part of this series, we’ll dive into finding the right market—identifying geographies, cities, neighborhoods and property types within that neighborhood that align with your strategy.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you’ll follow along with the rest of the series.