How to branch past four mortgages?

[Lucas Hammer]

So I always hear about the mortgage limits (between 4 and 10, depending on who you ask) and I'm trying to figure out how people get up to 15 or 20 properties in their portfolio at once. I guess what I'm wondering is if it's possible to have more mortgages if you already "own" the property, such as buying with hard money, fixing it up, and refinancing into a conventional or do refis have the same hard limit on number of mortgages? I'm in the process of expanding into a lower-cost market than where I live and I think I'm going to hit 4 properties pretty quickly and I'm trying to plan ahead. Thanks everyone.