Hopefully you raked in enough cash to buy a warm jacket!

If your goal is to have a cash flowing portfolio of rentals. 

That kind backs out to 12-15% cash on cash return. 

Quote from @Marc Zak: In the market where I live (San Diego), appreciation has been strong and many predict it will continue to appreciate in the long term.However, with current interest rates (6% at best) and property tax (2%), the annual cost burden is 8%.Am I correct in saying that appreciation has to be above 8% annually (plus whatever my maintenance and vacancy costs are) for me to make any money in this scenario if the property is cash flow neutral?

My main aim of interest in real estate is to increase cash flow and overall build wealth that can replace my day job and give me more flexibility with my time.

You likely only made a down payment of 3-20% ....but you still get to write it off on the full value across 27.5 years.So 400k/27.5 = 14,000 ish a year of a write off where during the year you didn't need to incur an actual expense, no cash outflow. 

I don't have a ton of cash right now so figuring how to do it all creatively is definitely in my priority list.

However, it is important to note that if a leverage you're looking for doesn't qualify with DSCR, it means that your cash on cash return is negative (because it means your NOI or Rent is lower than rent -in most cases).So if you want to maximize leverage and are less cash flow sensitive (okay being negative), then conventional makes sense.

Quote from @Dylan Webb: Hello, here's my situation:My wife and I own several properties separately.2 of the single family homes combined we have conservatively $150,000 in equity ($90,000, $60,000) I want to use one of these as collateral for a small loan of $30,000 to put down on a high cash flowing property OR have a lender finance the whole venture at a purchase price of $160,000.

I went from growing up in a hut in Vietnam and spending my early years in Section 8 housing in the U.S. to now owning four cash-flowing properties (8 units) across three states.