How to Buy Cash-Flowing Rentals in 2026 (Despite High Rates) (Rookie Reply)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

How To, Entrepreneurship, Business, Education, Investing

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is real estate investing still worth it? High mortgage rates and home prices can make buying a rental property seem challenging, if not impossible at times, particularly for a rookie investor with zero experience. But not to worry—in this episode, we’re sharing beginner-friendly tips that will help you find and fund cash-flowing deals in 2026! Welcome to another Rookie Reply! We’re back with three questions from the BiggerPockets Forums, the first of which comes from someone who’s looking to break into real estate but is unsure of how to make the numbers work in today’s high-interest-rate environment. Is now a bad time to invest, or conversely, the best possible time to get started? Another investor is looking to leave their W2 for a job in real estate, but should they? Ashley and Tony debate whether this move actually gives you an edge. Finally, behind every good real estate investor is an investor-friendly tax professional. But how do you find one? We share some of the most crucial questions to ask when hiring a CPA! Looking to invest? Need answers? Ask your question here! In This Episode We Cover How to find cash-flowing real estate deals (despite high mortgage rates) Whether rookies should start investing in real estate in 2026 (or wait) Choosing the right investing strategy for your long-term goals The BEST real estate jobs to help fast-track your investing journey When to leave your current W2 job for a job in real estate Crucial questions to ask a tax professional before hiring them And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-664 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if rising rates made every deal feel impossible? Your cash flow no longer works and you're
0:05.9	starting to wonder if real estate investing is even worth it anymore. Or maybe you're brand new
0:10.3	and asking how do I even break into this industry when I have zero experience? And when tax season
0:16.4	rolls around, what should you actually ask your CPA to make sure you're not leaving money on the table?
0:21.6	Today, we're breaking down all three of these listener questions that get to the heart of what
0:25.1	Rikis are struggling with right now, financing, experience, and taxes.
0:33.9	This is the Real Estate Rookie podcast. I'm Ashley Care.
0:37.3	And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let's get into today's first question.
0:42.1	So today's first question comes from Ray in the Bigger Pockets forms. And Ray says, I'm a newbie looking to purchase my first rental property. And I am in need of some advice.
0:51.3	My main goal going into real estate investing is to gain some cash flow so I can
0:54.8	scale down, not necessarily quit, my day job, which seemed fairly attainable based on the deal
1:00.1	analysis on the site and discussions on the BP podcast. But recently, I've seen several
1:05.0	forum posts stating it's no longer possible to have cash flow and that you'll be lucky to
1:09.8	even break even. Is this true?
1:12.2	Or does it just take more careful planning and knowledge in today's world? I've heard high
1:16.9	interest rates are one thing that are hampering cash flow, but my plan was to tap into the equity
1:21.4	from our home to cover the first rental, understanding that we could get a better interest rate
1:25.3	on a he lock than with a traditional loan and therefore create more cash flow.
1:29.1	Is that correct? Or does it all depend on the LTV ratio on the HELOC? As to how low the interest rate will be.
1:35.5	The other option is to withdraw money from our Roth IRAs to pay in cash, which would give us decent cash flow on the first property.
1:41.5	But we would still need to finance the second, third, fourth, et cetera, uh, through a he lock or traditional loan and would then face the same
1:48.5	question of whether we can find a deal that gives us some as in two to three hundred dollars per
	...

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