How to Buy Your First (or Next) Rental Property in 2026 (Step by Step)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, Investing, How To

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Want to buy your first rental property in 2026? You’ve come to the right place! Whether you dream of becoming a “small and mighty” investor or building a large real estate portfolio, buying that first property is often the biggest hurdle. But today, we’re going to show you how to do just that, step by step! Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Real estate investing might seem daunting, but in this episode, Ashley and Tony break the entire process down into manageable, rookie-friendly steps. We cover everything from setting goals and laying the right financial foundation to making offers and getting properties under contract. Along the way, you’ll learn how to choose your investing strategy, pick your market, analyze deals, and build out your very own investing team. Even if you’re starting with zero knowledge or experience, it doesn’t need to take six months, a year, or longer to buy an investment property. With our rookie-friendly roadmap, you have all of the tips and tools you need to take down that first property in 90 days or less! In This Episode We Cover How to buy your first (or next) rental property in 2026 (step by step) Why you need to lay the proper foundation before investing in real estate Picking the right real estate market and building out your investing team How to analyze rental properties like a pro with Tony’s seven-day challenge How to make an offer, negotiate, and get your next deal under contract What to do once you’ve officially closed on your first investment property And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-681 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	If you've been learning about real estate but still haven't done your first deal, this episode is for you.
0:05.1	Yeah, because a lot of rookies aren't stuck because they don't know enough.
0:08.1	They're stuck because they don't know what to do next.
0:10.7	So today, we're breaking down a simple 90-day roadmap to get your first investment property under contract week by week.
0:17.4	And this is based on the framework from real estate rookie 90 days to your first
0:21.2	investment, which is the lovely book written by my co-host, Ashley Care, and we're turning it
0:25.1	into a practical checklist you can actually follow.
0:33.0	This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast, and I'm Ashley Care. And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let's get into the very first step, which is laying
0:41.0	your foundation. So, Ash, what does it mean to, quote unquote, lay your foundation as a rookie
0:46.8	real estate investor? Yeah. Before you even think about analyzing a deal or finding a deal,
0:52.0	you need to set your foundation. And you need to understand why
0:56.3	you're investing in real estate. What is your goal? What do you want out of it? And you also need to
1:01.7	build a personal finance foundation. So when I say that, you need to be able to know where your
1:09.4	capital is coming from. You need to understand finances
1:12.2	because a lot of investing is finance, okay? Whether it stocks, whether it's a real estate investment.
1:19.3	So there's all these things that you need to do ahead of time before you actually continue on
1:24.3	your real estate journey. So let's start with first, why do you want to get into
1:29.4	real estate? Because that can really shape and tailor what strategy you're going to do, how much
1:34.0	time you're going to put into it, what deal you're going to find. Then what are your goals?
1:39.2	Do you want to acquire one property in the next year? do you want to retire within five years from real
1:47.1	estate? Then your personal finance foundation. You want to be able to manage your own money before
1:53.6	you're going to go and take on this business, this investment, and have to, you know,
	...

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