I was young, broke, and barely enough money to afford a down payment. My wife and I purchased a small bungalow in Oshawa with 5% down and we living in that house for 3-4 years and we were lucky that the housing market had increased significantly so we were able to use some of that equity to put a legal basement suite into our home. We got our first renter who payed 1400 dollars a month covering a good portion of our mortgage. We then moved into our next home, again putting 5% down and plan on doing something similar.
If I were buying my first home, I would look to do something similar. We couldn’t afford to do the renovation right away so we waiting until it was a feasible option.
My point is, you don’t need to build an empire overnight! Investing is slow calculated discussions that over time, pay dividing…literally!