Why is it so important for a real estate investor to have rent checks coming in each month?  4 rent checks is the starting point where risk is almost zero and profits start to flow.  With profits flowing, you have the extra cash to make further real estate investments, growing to 5, then 6, and eventually as many rent checks as you’d like.

Then, when you are ready to start paying down your real estate investment loans, you use the cash flow from your rentals to deliberately and quickly pay off one loan at a time, increasing cash flow and allowing you to snowball how you pay down your investment loans.