I mention that because I realize that requiring that much up front my limit my tenant pool. 

You say the investor got the better of you in terms of gaining equity but the equity you thought you had was only paper equity and not equity that would be realized. 

I didn't realize this.I know you aren't on the lending side per say, but follow up question.If I have two buildings in my name with total debt of $900k and I am looking to refinance one of them that has $500k debt, would the 45% DTI be based on the total debt ($900k)?

Then I realized that the rent was about $700 below market rent and my expenses were getting out of control (taxes, insurance, mortgage, repairs) so for the past 8 years I was slowly increasing the rent every year.  

And that's only if you realize the gains by selling.

Hell when you pull back the curtain most people would be shocked to realize that all those prim and proper super nice 50 year old lady Realtors that seem so nice; those ladies are some of the most cut throat sharks in the game.

Quote from @Steven Mendiola: @Steve K.Yeah, the more I look around the more I realize the Rv option isn’t so doable.

I.e. using John's $30/psf is great, until during your renovation you realize that a previous owner only update the wiring to romex in the unfinished basement, but didn't run it to all outlets and light.  

As I have been listening to a lot of real estate YouTube videos I realized that my moving into the unit is a major contribution to this deal and instead of us paying 20% we got 5% yet we are contributing the same amount of money.

@Jeff Fortuna@Dan Rowley   @John McKee - I'm receiving roughly 7% CoC returns for my two investments, with projections those will rise in future as they are able to realize contractual rent increases.