If someone wants to get to what I call the Economic Independence point, where the cash flow is large enough to cover or exceed all monthly expenses, focusing on cash flow is good as long as the quality of the properties and the other criteria accompanying cash flow are still met.If on the other hand one is young enough and has a longer infesting career ahead so that the economic independence point is not the main driver, the equity you are pointing out can be used after a while by applying HELOC to keep growing the portfolio without losing the high-quality asset.In some ways, there are investments in real estate approaches that are more complex.

@Jason JonesI have to step in here and state that a Rollover as Business Startup (ROBS) plan does not align with your situation as you have described it at all.Those plans are for actively running a business, not holding passive income properties.This is a complex and expensive solution, and a great tool for certain situations and significant amounts of capital.  

I think it would have to be 3 separate mortgages but that seems overly complex. 

Finally closing on my 48 unit complex on Monday!

So far my POL investment (Tinley Park Sports Complex) has been performing as expected, but soon after doing that one (and a fix-and-flip on PeerStreet), it became clear that I would need a *lot* of capital to effecitvely diversify away the risk of any non-performing loans (it's not apples-to-apples, but this analysis from LendingRobot on diversification needed for P2P notes is helpful.)

The property has 3 units, and will be owner occupied, but I added the owner unit rent as if I was renting out the whole complex to see what the numbers looked like and here is what I got. 

We are purchasing this property with the intent of eventually doing a 1031 exchange into a small apartment complex (within 7-10 years). 

Currently have a lot of investor clients who range from a new investor with one condo to large commercial clients with multiple apartment complexes and commercial buildings.Not sure where to start, so I figured coming in slow would probably be the best bet and gather thoughts about what direction to go. 

The key is knowing if a national or regional tenant would want to go in there.Larger spaces I have seen entertainment complexes, workout facilities, churches, indoor trampolines, outlet stores, etc.Additionally you can take a large space and cut it up to lease to multiple tenants at higher rates per sq ft.   

The end game for me is to sell off the smaller individual properties and owning a few mid-sized apartment complexes.