Hi @Andy S. 3x monthly rent for income has worked well. 

If we had hundreds of loans out, we’d have enough monthly income to aggregate the payments into additional loans—but we don’t.If you do this, your note will have to have a compounding clause in it, provided by your lending attorney.

I am expecting to do 3-4 deals per year until I get to 20 properties or so and then snowball the debt so they are all paid off by retirement. 

We will both keep our W2 employment for the near future just looking into getting an extra income or make our retirement easier.

I have cash reserves and money in retirement accounts, but I don’t want to dip too deeply into my reserves.

Like a calculator to simulate this strategy (https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/795487-retire...), maybe showing how much equity could be pulled out of which property when, whether the portfolio would still cash flow, etc.

They won't always be upfront about this with you but if know they're selling because they want to retire, that opens you up to different options vs if they're an investor just selling for profit.

As a retired CPA, I saw plenty of tax returns by these firms that clearly were done poorly. 

https://www.sensefinancial.comYou don't need a tax attorney or a CPA to set one up - just the plan administrator/custodian.You do need a CPA who specializes in self directed retirement accounts to make sure you are complying with UBIT and UDFI rules. 

I am researching my first deal in town (a foreclosure), and hoping to slowly but surely acquire properties for cash flow and retirement security.