After you have learnt the basics of it and have started making profit, you can think about expanding your rental property business by either replacing your first rental property with a bigger one or buying a second investment property.

we've bought and sold several houses with cash and conventional mortgages but we've never done a cash out refi. we really like coming to the table with a cash offer but we're starting to think about expanding our portfolio in a new market and as it turns out, our cash is not endless :(  so right now our thought is to buy 1 or 2 properties with cash just to get the ball rolling and then refi to get some back for down payments on a few more.  

So thinking about expanding to places where I dont have to live in the place.

When did you purchase the property and how did you go about expanding the master?

Oh.. and piggybacking to question 2 about expanding...is it common practice to get more and more properties while none of the ones you already have is paid off or you go for more once some are paid off (which...I can't imagine reaching some financial independence within 10 years if you have to fully pay off 1, 2, 3 properties with a 15, 20, 30 year loan before you get more properties....)!

Unfortunately my wife is nervous about expanding that fast.

@Allan SmithOhh Mann… based on this advice, I’m thinking about expanding my search to New Jersey!!

Operating costs are $9K annually.My partner and I purchased it all cash and we're thinking about expanding our portfolio into multi families and/or other SFRs.

I'm thinking about expanding into that area myself.

I can't help too much with your question about expanding your first house as I'm a rookie investor myself.