Our strategy will be to focus on flipping SFHs within the West Houston area and eventually purchase rental properties to begin accumulating passive income.

I would like to accumulate several rental properties to offset my retirement income.  

Mathematically it is the following:Income Producing Assets = Annual Expense Budget / ROI on those assetsFor example, if a $75,000 annual expense budget is an amount that will allow you to afford to live the way you want (without being greedy) and your risk tolerance allows you to generate a an annual Return On Investment of 10% without working, the your required Income Producing Assets = $75,000 / 10% = $750,000.Once you know what your Financial Independence Number is, next you develop an Asset Accumulation Plan (AAP) to get to that number. 

Have you determined how much in income producing assets you need to accumulate in order to be financially independent?

. $75k).I only gave this example since my goal is to leave my full time job in 2 years or less (after accumulating a few more rental properties of course). 

I ask these questions because I see too many investors look at the total cost as purchase price and not the actual cost which is the accumulated monthly payments plus cash originally in.  

(Accumulated depreciation times recapture rate - $36,363.63 x 25% = $9,090.90)I hope that helps.

I am a public educator turned software engineer/real estate investor currently living in Oakland, CA.I am an owner-occupant of a duplex in north Oakland where I've accumulated a good amount of equity (~400k) and I'm curious of people's opinions on good ways to leverage it.I apologize in advance if this question has been answered many times previously.

I would continue to accumulate cash until you are in a better financial position to purchase.  

It's no longer accumulating additional deposits.