Today, we're tackling some of the biggest rookie debates out there.

Do you follow Dave Ramsey and keep things debt free?

Or do you scale with leverage like so many investors here on Bigger Pockets?

And what about house hacking?

Is it still worth it if you don't want to rent by the room?

Plus, we're talking about one of the toughest rookie hurdles.

What's harder when you're just starting out?

Is it finding good deals or getting your financing?

This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Ashley Care. And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that,

let's go on to today's first question. So our first question

today comes from Noah. And Noah says, what are your thoughts on Dave Ramsey? Would you rather have

one property paid off that's worth $500,000 or maybe having $600,000 in five leveraged properties?

I think there's something to be said about the stress of leverage. I used to want the latter,

but now I'm not sure. Who is combining Ramsey with more of the BP style? Are you being more conservative in this economy? Good question. And I would think that a lot of the folks in the audience know Dave Ramsey really quickly for those maybe aren't super familiar with what he teaches. Dave basically says that all debt is bad debt, no matter what the circumstance, and you should never have debt. The only caveat to his rule is that if you do want to buy real estate for your personal residence, you should only buy it on a 15-year fixed note and then pay it off as fast as you can. I don't even know if he's okay. I think he's even when it comes to investment properties, only want you to pay cash. Yeah, Dave, he's got a pretty hard line in the sand about using debt under any circumstances.

So, Ash, I don't know, maybe I'll let you leave with this.

And what are your initial thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, I was a Dave Ramsey fan.

I read the, what is it, like the extreme money bankover book.

And I followed his debt snowball.

I paid off.

We had farm equipment debt.

We had a home equity line of credit.

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