Trying to figure out best way to invest in RE

[Mark K.]

Hello fellow BP'ers,

I currently own two single family homes that I'm renting. I bought the first one about 14 months ago and the 2nd one just 3 months ago. It's been a learning experience, but I have decent positive cash flow, so all is well. 

I'm also in the process of hopefully buying a triplex. I should know later this week if my offer will be accepted. 

Let's say I can get this triplex. It's currently rented and I'd have positive cash flow. 

This is how I've done it so far. With my first rental, I took out a small HELOC and was approved for $30K. I used about $19K of it and a bit of money out of my pocket to pay the down payment and closing costs on that first house. I put 25% down. I hadn't found or heard about Bigger Pockets while doing this.

With my 2nd home, I closed on 12/1/17. I paid a 20% downpayment using savings to do so. At that time, I still hadn't heard of BP. 

Roughly a month or so ago, I heard about BP. I have read two of @Brandon Turner books, I've watched a bunch of podcasts and webinars and I'm a Pro member. 

With this triplex, here is how I'll get it if it works out. Or, this is the plan at least. I'm retiring from my job in a week. I'll get a pension.  

I have a 457 plan and once I retire, I can cash out of that. For the triplex, I have to put 25% down. I'll use this 457 money, after they withhold 24% in taxes of it, to pay the down payment.

Here is what I'm wondering as I plan to move forward. 

I'm going to work PT and my wife also works FT.  We can keep saving up money and in a year or two, we could buy another single family home. And, we can keep repeating this. 

Multi-family homes in this area are sort of rare to find. As of this moment, I'm not ready to buy out of my area. I do want to get and read @David Greene's book on investing via long distance. I'm retiring from being a police officer, so perhaps I can follow in David's footsteps. 

I'm also debating doing this. 

My personal residence is fully paid for. It's probably worth about $185K. I do already have the $30K HELOC and it has a balance of about $10K due on it.

Do I try to get a larger HELOC? If I did, I could use that money for more down payments on rentals.

I've always been frugal and the only risk I take, besides my job, is investing in stocks, which I don't find risky. I've returned around 17% since 2005 on buy and hold long term quality companies. I find it easy. Real estate is much more work than investing in stocks. But, so far, I love being a landlord. 

If I get a HELOC for 70% of the value of my personal residence, this seems risky. What if hard times are in my future and I struggle to pay the HELOC back. Could I loose my personal home?

Anyway, if I can get this triplex, I'll have 5 doors. I'd love to grow that to 10, then to 15, then 20 and so on. 

I do appreciate any and all comments, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms and so forth. 

Stay safe,

Mark