I am also talking to a bank in the northeast for my Philly,Chicago, and NY operations and they mentioned a debt coverage ratio, but I think it was 1.2 which seemed much more manageable.Appreciate it!Eric

Been doing a lot of in person meet ups over coffee to re-establish connections and re-iterate my objectives.

As for the second iteration, sure, if you need the money to live.

Burn up your cash and your done investing - - use OPM via mortgages and you can purchase more & more.Here's a general strategy than many have/are using:buy one property with a large down paymentlet the loan 'season' for at lease 6  monthsthen get an equity REFI to draw out as much cash as possible (getting total LTV as high as the lender will allownow use the refi cash to  purchase another property and iterate to the top of this listConsider SFR vs MFU rentals. 

I know there are various factors at play including PMI, purchasing points, lender, and fixed vs ARM that make for seemingly infinite iterations.

Most of my business experiences have been iterative problem solving anyway.

Create a plan, take action, when you run into difficulty, iterate. 

I've read several iterations of 'How to Calculate NOI' here on Bigger Pockets and most all indicate we should not include capital improvements or additions, principal and interest, amortization loan points, income taxes and depreciation into the calculation. ... and I agree (mostly); however, shouldn't Principal and Interest be accounted for because A.) principal payments are not expense-able and considered income in the eyes of the IRS since principal is not an expense and B.) interest is a true expense in the eyes of the IRS? 

. - Since you are posting in the Multifamily / Apartment Investing Forum - I would re-iterate the fact that multifamily real estate is a great investment as it can reduce some risk in regards to a down turn or "crash".

write up a business plan and send it to them, get feedback, iterate.