I dont recommend doing this remotely, but if you live in (or have family that would do it with you in an affordable location where they live) a place where real estate investing is profitable/affordable it could be worth the time.
I moved to the Bay Area but where I grew up, most of my family lives there still and the real estate is cheap there (Upstate NY). I started buying properties last year while my family does the day-to-day management that requires physical presence.
Its been a great way to learn something in a new industry that is not related to work, and has given me a more business-minded perspective (being a business owner and landlord) which helps me take on a slightly more ownership-mentality at my day job.
I have a couple now, and so far I've been lucky to get financing from family members. The plan is to refinance the loans with the bank after the first year or two and re-use the money for new purchases.
When we run out of private money we'll go to the banks. We've applied already for the houses we've gotten because we didnt know we would be able to secure private money. I saw downpayment amounts varying from 20-25% for personal loans and 25-30% for business loans (if you're buying with an LLC).
With the interest rates the banks charge its still doable in our area, the private money interest rates are higher in at least one case and both are 15yrs (vs the 30yr we would want to go for with the bank).
Iirc you can get up to 10 personal mortgages in your name before needing to resort to small business loans, so if you're just starting off, you've got room to grow.
If you are starting off and live in the town you will be investing in, I highly read up on house hacking, which there are a few articles on the topic at biggerpockets.com (this was a great source of info when I was starting off, I recommend most of their books too).
edit: Also note that downpayment requirements vary by location, and if banks offer it, its much better to go for their portfolio of loans if they offer fixed rates (unfortunately, all the banks in my area only offer ARM loans) because the closing costs are lower (portfolio loans are not sold to the big banks, so the closing cost fees are not dictated by them).
We didn't do much research in the way of occupancy. Because its remote Im limited to the towns around us that is convenient for my family to visit. We played with the idea of getting an apartment building from another distant relative that owned one, but weren't ready for hiring the staff that came along with it (and the cost since it had a restriction to low-income housing for the next 6 years, which made it hard to make a profit off it to start. We may revisit when we have a better base to cover potential short-termlosses).
Generally from what we saw with no new housing being built in our town we knew we would be able to get someone to rent it to at least break-even. Our second option was to partner with an organization that helps subsidize low-income housing, since some offer partnerships that involve fixing things that their tenants break and helping cover costs for repairs.
I moved to the Bay Area but where I grew up, most of my family lives there still and the real estate is cheap there (Upstate NY). I started buying properties last year while my family does the day-to-day management that requires physical presence.
Its been a great way to learn something in a new industry that is not related to work, and has given me a more business-minded perspective (being a business owner and landlord) which helps me take on a slightly more ownership-mentality at my day job.