The sale of our current home of 15 yrs would allow us, after paying off the remaining 15 yrs of the mortgage, to buy a smaller home with cash and have plently of cash left over to save or invest.

Sometimes you can get a good deal on leftovers from another project they did, though it of course limits your color options.

I still have a bit of downpayment money left over so I'm gonna buy another 1 or 2 (depending on the deal and leverage).  

I'm sure you've sold plenty of condos to these folks.What's left over, such as the courthouse auctions, usually goes to folks with established businesses - professional contractors and long-time investors with rehab crews in place that can turn your $25k flip into a $15k flip.All of those rule-of-thumb equations you read everywhere are regional. 

If you don't have some extra cash left over after the end of the month you might want to wait until your cash flow situation is a little better and you have saved up some money.  

In my area, the banks are getting tighter with how much profit margin they will leave leftover for investors.

My realtor mentioned that once they clear that number the leftover money may go back into my principal but he wasn’t sure and my loan originator told me she was also unsure but she did say that banks can’t profit from a short sale.

We rented a 30 yard dumpster, filled it easily and could come close to filling another but have gotten by with putting most of the left over debris out to the trash little by little during renovations.

And his rent covered my mortgage with just a little left over each month.

Now I will be putting roughly 10% down on the home and using the left over $3000 of the money I have borrowed for emergency expenses or vacancies.