I'm currently renting and when  decided I wanted to focus on real estate investing, I decided not to buy in Tampa because of the low MF inventory and in home house hacking is not for me.

Low risk investments sell at a premium, that's the whole idea of cap rates.

Investors come to our market because of the low barrier to entry and that we have a solid tenant base that provides solid cash flow to out-of-state investors like yourself.

Investing in a low-crime area.I'm not being facetious. 

Use the 20K as a down payment on the next house hack and don't touch your current properties equity.

say you find a solid property in a low cost market for $200K and you buy it.between down payment, closing costs, rent ready / spruce up costs, and lease-up costs, you're probably going to need at least 50-65K in cash. 

@Mike Levene do any of you own your homes currently?

Low maintenance building, top-end rents for the area due to the extensive work that was done and the location.

Meanwhile, the sellers who are most likely to offer creative financing are normally the owners of  real estate that have issues.....condition.....low barrier/over supply market......or perhaps pricing issue, and one of these factors is why its not marketable in a arms length transaction and why creative financing would be accepted.

Nice to meet you (electronically).Currently renting a single-family home in a very expensive coastal Southern California city.