Fewer large investments or many small ones?

[Luke Henderson]

I am currently house hacking by living in my granny flat and renting my 3 bedroom house, but currently have no other rentals. I have the funds to purchase a few small rentals or a larger multi-family, and would like advice on where to start.

What I'm currently weighing:

* Multiple cheaper rentals spread risk out, but multiply the effort (rehab, lower income tenants, more repairs, etc)

* A single larger multi-family focuses the risk a bit, but has less long term effort (little to no rehab, higher income tenants, etc)

* Each property means a new loan which means higher interest rates... Not sure how quickly this stacks up or if it's more based on total overall debt.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I generally want to keep my roof count lower especially to begin with, but I know smaller investments can have greater CAPs. And slum Lord is also not a term I want to be associated with.

Thank you for your input.