I do not work for deals, I love reading about it but I will take the supplemental income and stability that comes from my 2 multi families.

I have a full time job and I am looking to use REI as a tool to supplement retirement in 10-15 years.

What I have seen is that business lend-worthiness can supplement personal credit scores in larger deals.

As in, I'm 30 now and I'd hope to keep them until at least when I'm 65+ and use the rental income to supplement whatever other retirement income I'd have, or potentially sell them at that time to fund retirement. 

So there's always the option to become a licensed agent, loan officer, or appraiser, all of which would provide supplemental income (perhaps eventually better full-time income) and help you network in real estate.

Went off the advice of a few senior military officers and my old economics professor suggested Brandon Turner's book... which led me to the podcast...which eventually led me here.Long terms goals include financial independence by age 45 and while Real Estate is just a component of the bigger goal, for me, at this point, I would like to maximize my opportunities to buy and hold a few properties that can potentially become streams of passive income to supplement my larger portfolio down the road and have been working for about 4-5 years to put myself in a position to do that. 

I have been supplementing my unstable commission based income with mechanical side work and snowplowing.

@Thomas S and @ Amy Beth :Find another job better suited to investing or a parttime job to supplement current.I would opt for the later here because again, lenders like to see longevity so perhaps keep current job just supplement it, especially if you have time with currently working only 30 hours a week.Good luck.Keep that hustle and that hunger, and at the same time, celebrate your wins, you are doing great and an inspiration.Great topic.I learned a lot from this and good to see that I am not alone and also nice to know that the strategies I am using currently are in part what has been suggested here: Refi then do a HELOC.I could have gone with a cash out Refi, but I needed more than what the cashout Refi was going to allow me.Good luck @ Nicholas Weckstein.

A house hack does not necessarily mean you are cash flowing while living in the property rather than supplementing your mortgage substantially.

With conservative underwriting we are still seeing upside in the 8-9 % CoC and 18% IRRs with opportunities for supporting higher returns w/supplemental loans end of yr 2 upon successful re-positions.