Hi All,I am a dormant RE investor with a few rental houses in Houston area and trying to get more active and scale up.

You have to manage capex.If you're going to find that an issue, your sell side is usually strong in cash reserves or has scale at such a level that this is already accounted for.

With your disability rating, you'll also be exempt from the VA funding fee which will save you thousands of dollars.It can be difficult to scale a rental portfolio using only the VA loan because VA designed this loan to be a benefit to the veteran to help you acquire a primary residence. 

Also, I would also not cross-collateralize the houses if a lender would even do a portfolio loan.On your second question about multifamily, I would not jump to multifamily until you have experienced the common management problems with single-family as the expenses scale with the size of the property as well as the cost of mistakes.I would consider getting Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) on each property.

There's zero reason to be paying money for a rent collection system unless you plan on scaling pretty big or already have a bunch of units  

Second home loans are great, but they are best for high-income W2 employees looking for a vacation home, not really for investors looking to scale. 

It also scales up in HCOL counties.

Good day everyone,
Long time reader, first time poster here. I'm seeking suggestions on how to expand beyond my current investments, which consist of one long-term rental and my current primary residence.
Background...

A lot has to go right for gentrification of that scale to take place.

Scaling tools make all the difference!