We have savings accounts (personal for unexpected expenses such as vehicle repairs and such, and property savings for heaters, A/C, water heaters, etc) to catch the fluctuations, but don't want to touch the property savings to invest, lest we be caught short.

We're a strong market and have weathered the past economic fluctuations with ease.Our economy is strongly supported by defense and science funding and so we were isolated from the rampant foreclosures as the real estate bubble burst.We have had a housing boom and I think our supply was oversaturated in the outlying areas but we're rebounding.  

If you got a blanket mortgage on it for $300k, you would have 60% of your capital back, with a huge buffer for market fluctuations and redundancy with 5 doors paying a single note.

I'm just getting into this process, but I have noticed that taxes on similarly sized properties do seem to fluctuate.

Bouncing from 3.2% to 3.4% with what looks like some seasonal fluctuations..

Bouncing from 3.2% to 3.4% with what looks like some seasonal fluctuations..

Does the % fluctuate with amount invested?

Does the % fluctuate deepening on amount invested??

I will add one minor caveat to "Fico scores don't have a memory"Absolutely true in regards to month to month utilization for the bulk of the score fluctuations that will occur however, there is a minor subset algorithm that takes into account utilization over time e.g.

prices are generally pretty competitive.. although lumber fluctuates with the market and lumber futures.