It's nice to have a roommate to help pay for things, but I don't want to be irresponsible with my finances and be dependant on a roommate in case some kind of emergency ever came up.A lot of the homes online that I have looked at list estimated monthly mortgage payments of ~950/mo.

Personally, I always like to have emergency fund, never know what might happen.

I guess there was some electrical issues in the garage that I had no idea about, plus the A/C didn't have a "emergency turn off" or something like that on it.

Having maintenance people that are loyal to you and will answer a emergency at 9PM on a Saturday night.

Emerging Real Estate Markets, ny David Lindahl.

Eventually one or two names will emerge.

Emerging Markets, U.S Stocks, Commmodities, Currency, Hedge Funds, etc.What type of returns do you get from each of these investment vehicles?

Dave, if you hold on to the MI rental I would definitely make sure you have a decent emergency fund before even considering to make another RE investment.

Another question to consider: is the $4000 you have in reserves all of your extra "emergency fund" cash for your portfolio?

On the LTV side you need to have enough room to sell fairly quickly, and cover the costs of that sale, for emergencies or if you need to raise cash for better opportunities.Also, it's not always the LTV.