@Chris Kay beleive you can do DSR loans without a job as they qualify the property, not the borrower.You'd still need 20-25% down though.That's where you have a decision:- Pay down the mortgage, setting yourself up for a future refinance to free up your VA Entitlement.OR- Save up for your next acquisition.Only YOU can make that decision as you have to be comfortable with the increasing debt-load risk and the additional time to manage everything.

On top of that you have idiots who engage in bid wars and pay retail for a house that has never been inspected (and those are the bidders who will cry foul when they discover totally trashed and destroyed house that will require a full gut job to rehab). 

Job, family, retirement, location, world, moving,  etc3.  

There is no doubt my best return would be to flip after rehab, but then I have a job as a flipper.

It's good practice in making the calculations needed to decide whether or not to pull the trigger on a potential deal.You soon learn that starting off as a Doctor is less advantageous than starting off as a Janitor, because the game presets your income and expenses based on the job title.

I also reccomend lining up a contractro early, realy early, from what I’ve heard, so you can keep everything on schedule and budget.So now that you’ve tackled what most investors would call a major job, do you see yourself repeating a similar strategy.. or do you feel like branching out into something else?

A buddy of mine, who’s been an agent in the Phoenix market for nearly as long as I have, once had a client who stumbled into a 1031 that shot their returns through the roof because they snagged a property near one of those new tech corridors sprouting up.. from what I’ve heard, that corridor’s been buzzing with interest lately.What’s exciting right now is seeing how investors are leveraging 1031 exchanges to pivot into markets that are on fire.

We don’t plan to leave jobs and live off of the portfolio but have it as a wealth generator aka hedge against future risks

A strong partnership benefits both parties.Happy vendors are more likely to prioritize your jobs and provide high-quality service, benefiting both tenants and owners.Balancing Stakeholder NeedsBalancing these relationships requires a strategic approach:1.Standardized Processes: Implement systems that ensure consistency and efficiency in addressing maintenance requests, approvals, and payments.2.Transparency: Use technology, like owner and tenant portals, to provide real-time updates and visibility into ongoing issues.3.Regular Communication: Maintain open lines of communication with all stakeholders.

.: It sounds like you have a great system down, and I am sure that you can find some handymen that are in the area doing part-time work and then working at a day job that could be pushed into full-time work on your properties.