Rents tend to rise over time, amortization steadily increases equity, incomes rise, so the investor has a lot of “cover” for unfortunate timing or operating “mistakes”.Number 2 - periods like 1932 - 1941 and 2008 - 2013 are much harder on this strategy.  

We can possibly increase leverage to 85/100 starting with your second deal. 90/100 comes after 3-5 exits.

Watch a few youtube videos on increasing your credit score quickly.

These will take some cash to get up and running.Maybe look for properties that are a little higher cap rate AND might have some room for rent increases or ADUs or some other way to boost income.

I rent two of those by the room to increase my profits. 

Do not refinance a primary residence for this because you will be increasing your payments, but not getting anything for it unless the investment you purchase is giving you such a great return that it doesn't make sense not to do it.I have used HELOCs on both my primary and investment properties (when I could get them) as short-term debt.

Maybe do a bit of rehab and increase rents, divide by cap and you see how much value you add to your property's "ARV". example4 units - $1000/unitARV $500klight rehab brings $1200/unit$200*4*12 = $9600 / let's say 8 cap = $120k additional property value ARV $500k -> $620kAdd appreciation, gentrification, more depreciation, refi.BTW a LLC is like $300 if you do it yourself or $500-600 if you hire a lawyer. $700-ish out of state.

If you sell or transfer the property - that basis is re-evaluated at the time of the new sale  and would likely increase - making your taxes higher.  

Fair Return:An owner can also file a petition for a rent increase based onfair return.

A cost segregation study looks at a property you own to breakdown the various assets you purchased.The goal is to increase the depreciation expense by finding assets that have an asset life less than 27.5(residential) or 39 years(non-residential).Whether you should get a cost segregation study done is whether you will benefit from the study.Will you be able to use the added depreciation now or in the near future?