Moved and turned 1st house into rental, what next?

[Jeff Jakubowski]

2 years ago I moved to be closer to work and turned my old 3 bed/2 bath townhouse into a rental. Renting it out has gone fine so far, so I want to do more rentals, probably similar properties in the same neighborhood, it's a good location and rentals go quickly.

I owe 24K on the property, and it's valued somewhere around 160K.

So I assume I can refinance that loan and buy 2 more similar properties. But the closing costs on 3 loans is going to be $12,000 or so, which will cost me 13 months profit, assuming I get all three units rented 100% and have no significant expenses.

It seems like the bank fees are killing me. What am I doing wrong?

Second, assuming I do this and it works out, I'll have enough equity in 6 years between those 3 properties to purchase another rental. But how do I get the equity out without (again) getting killed by loan fees?