Safest way to build real estate wealth?

I consider myself a fairly ambitous guy, I'm optimistic but not naive. I noticed that most 22(23 this month) year olds aren't realistically setting achieveable goals for themselves why is that? I'm a college student who plans to go to law school in a couple of years. After which I will be a practicing criminal attorney. With that said I hope to achieve an income of nearly 80-90k after five years starting out in the low 60's with as little debt as possible. I then want to save up frugally, and instead of buying a home, buy a 5 or 6 unit apartment building live in one unit and rent out the other 4 or 5 units. Then I will repeat to I have a portfolio of maybe a 10-12 properties is this a real achieveable goal, likely even if I plan? How does one get pass the DTI issues associated with financing 10 properties? When they do the loans they just go stated?

So if anything over four units is commerical, then I'll just keep it down to four units then.

Yes this is a very achievable goal. You can get past the DTI issues by having a nice income yourself and by using your rental income from the properties. This should be enough income, especially if you are renting out all of the units, you have a great credit score and you are putting down decent sized down payments on the property. The less you put down the higher your payments will be and the higher your DTI will be as well.

Yes some investors do simply go stated and take the rate bump for stated. For an investment property going stated on a multi-unit property you will most likely need around a 30 percent down payment.

Ps: Normally anything over 4 units you will need to do a commercial loan instead of traditional mortgage financing.

Start small and keep increasing your investment portfolio as opportunities and finances permit. You may need to start with a duplex or triplex if your credit won't handle a larger property. Look for something that has a decent cash flow. Many investments rely on large down payments to make them break even. Diversify your assets. Pay off properties as quickly as possible so they become profit centers in 3-10 years, depending on your income and ability. Avoid borrowing 2nd mortgages to purchase more properties. This can lead to problems if the market turns. Instead, pay off properties a little slower and save down payments for new investments.

I own rentals myself and find there are pros and cons. Be aware some tenants can be high maintenance and not everyone pays the rent on time, takes good care of your property, etc. Overall, I'd say this is a great way to build wealthy, but it's a challenge at times.