Good choice, with leverage it is a much better option, glad you saw the majority view, I have had a few people ask me the same question and they usually wanted to be super passive and realized RE wasn’t as passive as they thought, only reason I said stocks wouldn’t be bad.

I realize this may not be the case with you and your agent, just saying it happens.A little explanation about the terms:The 'refuses or fails' is so the agent doesn't shafted if they work hard for you for months and then you buy a FSBO with no buyer agent commission offered. 

Didnt realize I cant edit posts after 10 minutes!

I realize 2020 was horrible but we don't have much besides our W2s and house!

I realize you have to pay out of pocket here, but, should we get an appraisal before going to refinance the loan so we know how much to ask for (or how much we should be able to get); or, wait for the bank or loan company to get their own appraisal (which I know we also pay for) and work from there?

@Danny Mestas After much deliberation I’m keeping my house with just about that cash flow I was going to sell and reinvest to double cash flow but realized it would turn a paid for asset with $850 cash flow to about $400,000 in mortgage for a $1,700 cash flow and I decided that was stupid.

Hopefully they realize how wrong they were and lucky that you were a better person than them.

Even though I felt I had the education, I soon realized there was a LOT I didn't know and it was this that was holding me back in the past.

It was scary at first-we moved here from Ca 6 years ago-but we have come to realize MTM protects the LL.

I thought the same thing until I realized that NNN won't have the same appreciation that multifamily does since the rental rates won't compound the same unless there are annual rent increases built in instead of 5 year increases!