FYI: a bank's appetite for loans has many factors: portfolio concentration, industry expertise, availability of funds/balance sheet to lend, legal lending limit (capitalization), local competition, cost of fund, etc. 

You can get better returns by building a team, doing the renovations, etc yourself -- just depends on how much time you have to spend, and what your appetite is for that side of the business.

So, here's how the numbers might work out for you:-  You decide you need $5,000 per month in income to quit your job-  To generate $5,000 per month (which is $60,000 per year) at 10-12% return, you need to start with $500,000 - $600,000-  With $500-600K, you can likely buy 5-10 rental free-and-clear or 20-40 rentals with leverage (depending on your appetite for risk and time/effort)

I may have the opportunity to purchase a smaller condo from a relative - quite simply put, she doesn't have the know-how or appetite to manage it as a rental and wants to be rid of it.

Construction loan appetite varies by locale.  

Mary Jo, Chris, Heather and everyone starting out, should you still decide to continue I bid you the best of luck in the emotional, social and spiritual struggles that comprise the entirety of buy-and-hold real estate investing.Just in case you are still wondering, while your mileage may vary, my tenants are harmful, suppressive, hypocritical, cultic, meretricious, jargon-spouting, harassive, restrictive, destructive, greedy, mendacious, violent, clueless, mind-numbing, criminal, satanic, spastic, secretive, barratrous, demented, loathsome, crazy, evasive, narrow, splenetic, bilious, belligerent, deceitful, cowardly, malignant, devious, stifling, unethical, opportunistic, uncaring, clumsy, clueless, tasteless, malevolent, avaricious, diseased, unsympathetic, insane, contemptible, self-righteous, dim, self-entitled, dystopic, grim, vengeful, idolatrous, flagrant, self-destructive, controlling, deceptive, illegitimate, brain-damaged, socially poisonous, conspiratorial, manipulative, fraudulent, despicable, weird, imbecilic, libelous, fundamentalist, byzantine, abusive and, to any well-meaning would-be real estate entrepreneur, not good.In other words, if you want to invest, you might want to play eenie-meenie-miney-moe with penny stocks or something.

You just need to find the right one for the project as they all have different appetites for different types of projects. 

I found there is more of an appetite from legal counsel to represent the HOA versus a disgruntled owner.

But after a certain point I'd rather move that 401k as loan to fund RE or self-direct IRA,etc.If you’re into options trading then you have a very different risk appetite than I do so my comments may not be useful. 

Your appetite for how you'd like that ratio to trend will depend on your finances, etc.