I've ran this simulation a number of times through my head: When I left my parents I could have bought a small, sordid 40sqm for 80k in my home town. Before I

I've ran this simulation a number of times through my head: When I left my parents I could have bought a small, sordid 40sqm for 80k in my home town. Before I left my home town few years later a friend of mine bought an absolutely awesome 70sqm for 200k. Then I moved to the capitol city and I was looking at either somehow decent 70sqm for 550k or absolutely stunning 70sqm 850k. Precovid we were looking at the best apt I've ever seen, 85sqm for 950k. But the offer was shortly taken down. It came back few months later at 1.2M and owners called us back. I should have took it on the spot, but I decided play slow only to learn that the price went up to 1.5M. At that time it seemed too much. Post covid gets me a sordid place in suburbs. Point is - if I was told when I was a kid that "investing" in real estate is the best thing you could do and mortgage is nothing you should be afraid of I could have 7 to 9 apts by now without streching too much. I'm fully aware of multiverse - if I got that first apt my life would probably went slightly differrent route, but still. I'd get that first apt when I was earning 5k/mth in 20y mortgage and just in few years I'd be earning 20k/mth. EDIT: I've rent a number of places and went out to see a countless ones. Here it's pretty standard that when you go out to check a place for rent and speak to landlord it turns out he has ten more. If you don't like this one he may have another one that suits your needs better. I have a friend of mine with which we spoke about investing in real estate from time to time but he was hesitant - too much hustle, legal uncertainty (we leave in communist EU mind you), etc. But once his mother died and left him an apt he decided to rent it. He felt too attached to sell it and it needed a renovation anyway. So he decided to rent it as it was, just to keep it and not having to think too much about it. Fast forward two years later he has two more apts he's renting. And his thought process is really simple - I have savings so I can afford to buy these places, random people will pay for the mortgage, I will get some extra cash in the process, and when all is done his daugher will inherit all this apts and be able to live of it.