Those rentals debt serviced and also covered my California monthly rent (I know some of you may question paying someone else's mortgage) but at that time, I preferred the renting lifestyle which placed me much closer to work, my family, my clients, and friends.

Cancel bad debts.

Think about it, if you are buying something at a 5% cap rate, but interest rates are 6%, the debt payment exceeds the income.

These markets often have strong population and job growth and strong rental demand.But the reality is that even in more affordable markets like Columbus, you'll need about $50k-60k household income just to qualify for a conventional investment property loan (this assumes good credit and reasonable debt).

@Chris Kay beleive you can do DSR loans without a job as they qualify the property, not the borrower.You'd still need 20-25% down though.That's where you have a decision:- Pay down the mortgage, setting yourself up for a future refinance to free up your VA Entitlement.OR- Save up for your next acquisition.Only YOU can make that decision as you have to be comfortable with the increasing debt-load risk and the additional time to manage everything.

Debt financing will be slim pickings

The main drivers1) Local Inventory2) 10 year treasury(macro)3) Personal Debt levels(macro)4) Real Unemployment(not the unemployment number but real white collar job loss ratio'd to part time jobs). 5) Industry proliferation(can't tell me a tech or finance hub moves like a health hub).To tell me #2 will derive from the same inputs as it did in Sep/Oct, I'm willing to bet it won't.

I always make sure that the properties are cash flow positive, but the large bulk of the money I make from them is from the other items (appreciation, debt paydown, tax benefits, etc). 

Probably not, but I felt better having that debt paid off. 

The scariest part is taking on debt at 75% LTV and less than 10% of BAM's money is in the deal.