My wife and I are fortunate enough to earn enough from our 9-5's to make well above the local median household income, but are not in a position to start purchasing property for cash.

Banks will be looking at your DTI as a household, so those debts of your wife's may be part of the issue- you don't mention if that's a very large number, but those car payments can really add up.You are in a good position in terms of having plenty of equity, but as I have learned from personal experience, equity and $4 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, lol.

We have talked about doing this for 15 years as we have rehabbed our own houses and believe this would be a good time to strike.Our ultimate goal is to obtain 10 rental properties in the next 5 years to create enough passive income to run our household.  

any details would be helpful. or is one person in military per household the 80% rule?

So I'm wondering if a first time home buyer, with excellent credit, almost no debt and a household income between $120-$140k could get an 80/15/5 or am I stuck with the 80/10/10?

According to an article titled, “Workers Saving Too Little to Retire” by the Wall Street Journal, 10,000 people are turning 60 every day and 57% of US workers surveyed, report less than $25,000 in household savings.

First thing is that governments are not household incomes as they like to portray that relationship, totally a different world.

Sounds like a lot, but compare it to the total number of rentals out there.There are 115 million households in the US.

The $140k Homes run about $1700 a year in taxes, so that brings the total payment to $958/mo without insurance which kicks them off.Of course, you could just do a 2 income household and kick it over, and the people could do it that way, but people seem not to like it too much.Now, having said that , in these areas where a foreclosure comes up for $120k or so, they go like hotcakes.

I'd like to get some input on how much I could/should be spending on an investment property, given the fact that my wife and I will be looking for a home of our own in the next 1-3 years.We live in New York City, but I've been interested in purchasing a multi family investment property for a while now, and am getting the ball rolling on that.Our household income is around $180k/year.