It's a loophole, but may be worth a try.

But I have seen just this scenario played out MANY times before.  

Credit cards have the same limitation on the amount you can borrow and will likely end up costing more than private lenders.

Failure to meet material participation rules will limit rental losses to offsetting passive income or carrying forward.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

While your condo snowball strategy builds equity, modest cash flow and HOA fees may limit returns.

What is their federal lending limit?  

I may be wrong but you cannot refi unless the property is seasoned for 12 months when using Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie.

I bought a book about investing in parks, but have only found 1 book about building a park, which was from the late 1950's. 

You don't always have to incentivize a tenant with a discount to get the tenant to stay, nor keep rents stagnant, but it is good to be aware of the business impact with respect to cost too.

Hi Ben, I'm way new to this and I'm not as far along as you are, but I wanted to say I can relate to feeling alternately encouraged and then like my dreams might be unattainable.