How to expand rental portfolio quickly

[Anshul Pandey]

Hello all,

I am aware of how one can quickly scale the number of rental units, with 5% down on 2-4 unit property, get lower rate due to it being your primary residence and then repeat every year.

So let's say I start with 250K in cash and buy 1 million $$ 4 unit property every year with 50K down and end up with 20 units at the end of 5 years (Assuming everything else as constant, will come back to this later). 

But I can't do that since I have a family with kids going to school and can't afford to move every year. So what I end up doing is to buy 4 units as investment property and pay 25% down and higher interest.
So in the example above, I use all of my 250K cash to buy just 4 units and that's it.

I am a bit late to the real estate investing, but what is the best way to scale to owning more rental units and not putting 25% each time (and by not buying properties all over the country).

I am based in Seattle, WA.