Odds of you losing your job in a bad market is directly proportional to your tenants ability to pay or a crash in the housing market and if you have cushion to sustain that then of-course leverage and go for it.

Even if you are handy this leaves you enough cushion if you have to bring in a contractor to help finish or do one unit while you do the other.

You're only paying interest if you use it and you'll have your cushion you desire.

Because your monthly cash flow is larger (thus favorable) given less monthly debt service responsibility, and thus you see it as a safer monthly cushion?

At 4 years (no vacancy, no CAPEX, management, maintenance) how do you come up with a 4-year cushion? 

My plan would then be to buy a 4plex and live in one of the units for a year putting all that money down and using the commission id earn as the buying realtor as my new cushion (3% of purchase).My question is...given that debt to income ratio will be a huge factor in all of this and I’d like to maximize my buying power...would you recommend a HELOC (hard to find on investment prop), Cash Out Refi, or a personal loan.

As long as you have that return cushion and steady rentals (college students rent in recessions), you should be able to withstand a market drop.4.

Not only does the beneficial W-2 income provide a great cushion for investing into real estate, the systems and process mindset with engineer type jobs is highly useful for creating a Real Estate Business.I develop automation systems and processes that simplify my Real Estate ventures using a number of apps and tools.

Especially if you know how to properly buy property right and leave yourself with 30%+ equity there is plenty cushion there to weather the Covid storm. 

Then we'll open another HELOC for some cushion money and look for more opportunities to invest!