← Your first doorLesson 1 of 3 · 1 min
What a first deal is for
Tuition with a capped fee — resetting the goal before you shop.
Your first deal has one job: to teach you the business without ending your run at it. Returns are the second priority, and it is not close.
This lesson resets the target. You are not hunting the best deal in the market. You are hunting a deal that stays standing while you make the mistakes every first-time owner makes — the ones no article can vaccinate you against.
The standard
A first deal qualifies when:
- It clears its debt service at 90% of the appraiser's rent schedule, not your optimistic one.
- You hold six months of debt service in reserve after closing.
- Nothing about the plan requires a renovation to work.
Boring is the strategy. The exciting version of you starts at Year 6, funded by the fact that this version survived.