@Joshua D. Great post and your enthusiasm is fantastic. Keep it up. A lot of what was said here was extremely valuable. Talking to a financial planner is your absolute best bet when you are determining how you should diversify. We, as investors are are (just slightly) HEAVY in real estate, and that's good (and sometimes bad). While all this advice is great, get some insight from a non REI planner, but someone who understands its place in a balanced portfolio. I learned early on how to track my net worth, and I use a very simple excel sheet. There are fancy ones everywhere, but I like simple.
Assets: What you have in cash, retirement, the value of your properties. List them on one side. Be conservative on your values of real estate. Like others have said, liquidity is the only true in what someone will pay for your house in cash today.
Liabilities: List all your debt there.
The balance=Net Worth
My net worth broke a milestone (for me) a few years ago, but I had HEAVY liability, and for me, that made me nervous (even though on paper I was worth that large number). In 2017 I unloaded some of my property (as some have stated they did), and my liability side went WAY down, my cash levels increased, however, my property count decreased :( There is such a thing as "seller remorse," although, I feel that each of us has their own comfort zone that works for them when deciding to trim or add to our portfolios.
If I were to give advice in 2018-2020 it would be to trim leverage, not increase it. Most people out here WILL disagree with this statement. I would advise on adding cash levels and using rental income to reinvest in your properties to keep them performing better than your peers. Be ready with higher levels of liquid assets to be prepared for unexpected expenses for properties, or for nw properties if the right deal comes around. My $.02
