I have 5 investment properties - where to go from here?

[Jake Wakefield]

I've read Bigger Pockets forums for a while but this is my first post.

I have 4 long term rentals in my city and 1 Airbnb property in the mountains about a 2-hour drive away.

At this point, I have a contractor I like, set up a system for dealing with tenants, been to tenant-landlord court to evict, and feel pretty confident in what I have.

The problem is that I can no longer get a loan to buy new property because my debt-to-income ratio is too high (from the other properties). This also means I can't refinance properties.

How can I keep moving forward?

One thought I had was that I could get a friend with a high income to sign up for the mortgage with me so the debt-to-income ratio would be fine.

Another option would be to find private money.

Are there other ideas out there? What do people generally do when they hit the maximum for debt-to-income?

Thank you.