How did you personally scale your portfolio?

[Jeremy H.]

First of all - Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is doing well! 

I'm sure we're all making some new years resolutions and potentially planning to scale our portfolios in the coming few years. That being said - how did you personally scale? If you did it again what would you do differently or better?

I'm reaching the crossroads where it's about time to scale. The "business" is caught up paperwork wise, netting solid returns etc. I bought my first place then realized this wasn't a quick road to "retirement", then started to realize after you get a few places the capital goes quick, and finally got to a place where the next step is scaling into something larger. I personally don't plan to be a "guru" and RE is only part of my investment portfolio. But I think, with the right properties - it works. 

I bought my first one on the MLS (duplex), second from a private seller (fourplex), 3rd from a wholesaler (SFH), 4th off-market facebook post, 5th was a house I moved out of, 6th as foreclosures and bought a new primary house that was also a foreclosure. So almost all different methods - which was good and bad. I can't tell you which was the best - they all kind of just happened...

That being said, the capital goes quick - the BRRRR method seems the most viable way out of this. So you're looking at buying in cash (ok), rehabbing (ok), then having a seasoning period (ouch) then refinancing. How are we getting around the seasoning period (I want to say it changed from 6 months to a year)?

The next thing is getting more leads, leaving less in the properties (I'll be going with DSCR loans now that my personal DTI is as high as I want it), possibly start a partnership and scaling.

So how personally do you like to scale? What'd you use for your main source of funding and how did it work out? If you could change anything, what would you change?