Starting a Real Estate Portfolio

[Chase Metzger]

First I'm very thankful for any helpful advice. 

Location: Omaha, NE

My wife of 5 years and I have 3 young children and have lived in our mortgaged home for 4 years. We have a FHA loan and put down 3.5%. We purchased our home for 140,000. My wife runs a daycare out of our 3 bed room 2.5 bath all brick ranch that backs up to a golf course. I work out of the home and we make good income but with other expenses our debt to income ratio is at the top of the lending line for banks.

We have 15k for a new home. 22,000 in a 401k account and we're looking to upgrade to a 4 bdrm home sooner than later. I'm interested in keeping our home because its a rare home in a good neighborhood with little outside maintenance. To get the space we need I'm looking at getting a FHA 203KS loan so we can get the space we need and make nonstructural upgrades to our next home. We can qualify for the loan if we rent our home for 1400 a month (RE agent told me thats what we could get) and the bank will use 75% of monthly rent as income.

I'd like to put the minimum down with the FHA 203(K)s loan so in 2-3 years we can move again with the possibility of refinancing both homes and getting another. I'm at a crossroads on what to do next because of a few question marks. Do I go for another 203k loan where I can make up to $35k of updates and try to sell in two years and hopefully my updates will give me more value when I sell to make a profit? I essentially want to make enough money where I can purchase property with cash, but I feel it will be a while to get the cash flow from current properties. Should I look at multi family units or single family units with a cement foundation?

In 5-6 years I'd like to be settled down into a home that my kids can graduate high school in, so what should I be learning about in the meantime?

Thanks all in advance!