Maintaining a solid percentage of capital as possible should be the goal if you are looking to scale your real estate portfolio. 

I'll add another important point...if you sell your primary residence in less than a year, you will be paying short term capital gains tax which more likely than not will be a higher percentage than the long term capital gains tax bracket.

The idea is that the percentage of the income that is derived from the debt financing is taxable.  

They are building thousands of apartments close to downtown.There seems to be a very high percentage of investors here, including new investors (that includes me!)

But if you did, the bank would basically take ownership of whatever percentage you tell them you want mortgages (they'll limit it to about 80%).

I chose orange county because I am somewhat familiar with the area as I travel there quite often, the taxes are lower than nearby Rockland and Westchester counties, and the percentage of home sales have risen more than the respective counties over the past year. 

However if it were to save me a huge percentage overall, I could learn over the next few years.

I usually google average mortgage APR and put that number in there any investor worth his salt will know his typical Percentage from the lender he is working with and will factor that in when he sees your report.

Depending on what percentage your commercial Lender will loan you against their new appraisal, the usual 70% means that you wouldn't get all your original $85k back  at refi.

You MAY get 1%/m gross in a multi that you also want to live in - not forgetting to subtract the percentage that you miss out on because of your occupier status - meaning that it'll be a fight to find something that'll cost you less per month than if you rented there - but I have confidence that you have the right attitude and foreknowledge to succeed.