I have about 250k ready to be deployed just want to hear some ideas from others whether I should stay the multi family route or venture into other areas.

At that time it would be great to have $20K ready to deploy.

I'd say now is a time to prune the portfolio and have some cash ready to be deployed.  

Eventually when prices dip again I will deploy that 500K into highly leveraged houses in Seattle again, maybe more, riding another wave of equity up. 

@GaryTo improve COC return (net income/cash deployed), keep minimal cash into the deal.Remember if your leverage is 4x (you put 25% down), when property appreciates by 10%, your return on cash due to appreciation is 40%.

A private lender is a person that seeks to deploy their own capital.A HML is a business that seeks to deploy its own capital or the capital of others.Individual v. business basically.

If you pay down equity quick, yes you save on interest, however you gave up use of deployment of those funds which could have been put to another use.

My question: can private money or hard money be used to supplement the capital I have to deploy for the down payment?  

So, while you are correct the loan amount wasn't far off from what I was expecting, I now feel like I should be able to pull more equity and deploy somewhere else based on their appraisal.  

A buddy closed 242 units while deployed.