All cash or financing?!?

[Daniel Lehman]

Hello, I am a new member to BP and currently saving up to invest in real estate with my cousin as a partner (also currently working on getting my real estate license). We decided on renting out small multi-families to start and working our way up to getting apartment buildings with the occasional fix and flip. We plan on financing our properties with mortgages and finding a local portfolio lender. 

My question is this - once we are in a position to do so, should we switch to purchasing our properties with all cash, or is financing a better way to go? I understand there are leverage benefits to financing but I would like more feedback on which is the better way to go. 

Thanks for any and all replies!!