FHA now allows us to count rental income from an ADU (additional dwelling unit) to help borrowers qualify.

It could go higher with additional work to the house.

Once you’ve built some confidence and systems, you can start exploring additional markets.I personally focus on 2 markets that are about 20 mile radius.Make sure the market(s) you choose align with your investing goals, whether that’s cash flow, appreciation, or both.

Any additional input would be great.

If you are looking to refinance the rate and aren't concerned with taking additional equity out on your property, then you should use a rate/term refinance.

But this comes with pockets of C/D neighborhoods, and higher potential for headaches;  in addition, appreciation in these zips has probably maxed out for a while.

Additionally house tenants bring more of their own appliance, like refrigerator, washer and dryer; which means tenants are responsible for repair and replacement of their own appliances. 

They forget time is money and the PMC shouldn't be expected to do this without additional compensation.Also, many owners are too focused on the cheapest price without understanding all the potential pitfalls. 

The way I'm looking at it, if my spouse and I only do employer matching for the 10 years we would have more than enough in there and still 10 years out from being able to access it.I do plan on doing 401k loans for deals if the numbers check out, and I've considered rolling over some of our 401ks into roth IRAs to access our contributions but we'd have to pay taxes out of pocket (a big hit to cash flow) and we couldn't touch it for 5 years.  

Additionally, the estimate for my tax preparation for this year was approximately $1,000 over the cost I paid last year (including the time I paid for them to correct their errors).