Liquidating equity for investments

[Sam Lopez]

Bare with me, this is my first blog ever. I was recently blessed with the purchase of my current home. It appraised at $575K and we paid approx. $527K. We put down about $21K and financed $506K. (It is a VA backed loan) Due to recent supply and demand (in CA) Zillow and other home appraisal companies have consistently appraised our homes value between $580K and upwards of $700K+. (A comparable home recently sold for around $630K) I've been considering utilizing a 100% VA Cash-Out Refi to liquidate equity and purchase my next rental (hopefully cash). However, that obviously would take my 30 yr at 3.75% on $506K to the current market rate of approx. 4.25%+ at whatever the new appraised value would be $580K+. I was also reading a blog here where an investor said he would recommend taking that same $100K (liquidated equity) and purchase several properties with a percentage (probably 25%) down. And also, keep cash on hand for over head and incidentals. So my questions are:

1) Does my method of finance/funding these investments work or sound practical? Is it a good idea?

2) How many of you would recommend purchasing one property outright for a large net cash flow each month vs purchasing several with the min 25% down, and very little net cash flow, initially?

P.S. I'm only 30 ( so I have time to recover from my mistakes or acts of God) and I am actively seeking to grow my Real Estate portfolio to supplement my retirement income, but I want to make wise choices with out being too conservative. So I would REALLY appreciate the opinions of those who have been where I am and would like to share both failures and success'. Thank you.

John 15:13,
- Semper Fi