Putting money into one doesn't magically allow new deductions.

sure,when the closing attorney sends me the HUD to sign, instead I tell them to add that amount to the HUD and I give him the name and address of my contractor, who then disburses the money out through escrow. you just have to ask, no magic involved.

@Skylar Dejesus I'm finding there are a couple of options after reaching the magical "10".Some Investor friendly banks will roll several (I've found 4 to be the minimum) properties into a commercial loan. by doing this, It frees up some the conventional loans.

I think one issue is the price I'm offering is a commercial valuation where as most sellers seem to want a retail price.My workflow has been a bit different from yours though it's relatively similar:Decide investing area - home market, easy decisionObtain list of all multifamily properties in target counties via GIS data pull and/or contacting the tax assessors office and asking for the listFilter list with Excel magic to take out all properties owned by companies, recently sold, and other attributes that disqualify them from my criteriaConsolidate list and google map/streetview each property - type notes in an excel field for future reference.

An exit plan based on hitting a magic number?

If they ever magically do change, I will adjust accordingly.  

A hard money lender is going to require that you have a business purpose and a real exit plan- just magically saying you plan to refinance DSCR is not a plan.

Living in Phi Phi island would be magical :)

There is no magic number.

I just can’t figure out what my magic number should be.