She asked me today if it made sense to cash in almost $30k of that retirement and eat the penalty to pay off the debt.

However the costs of LLC registered agents, annual filing and tax filings would eat into the cash flow significantly.

This may eat up most cash-flow. 

A 1% increase in rates will eat about 10% of your buying power. 

Demand is still strong for housing, so we are unlikely to see a major correction in the near future.The takeaway is, if you are thinking about buying, take advantage of the lull in the market to get into a home before interest rates eat up your purchasing power.

Hey guys I'm having a hard time choosing weather or not to buy a single family home or a duplex for my first investment property, my problem is I have like 130k saved so I'm skeptical about buying a duplex because the 20% down payment would be close to 80k where as if I stick with a single family home I could probably put a down payment on three or four properties with room for renovations and errors if need be, my girlfriend wants to steer towards the hack house strategy and get a duplex I'm just worried that would eat up most of my finances for other future properties.

HomeUnion fees seemed to be too high which would eat up most of your profit in my opinion.

Purchase and closing costs will eat that up leaving nothing to use for improvements. 50 units in 10 years will require a great deal of capitol which you probably will not be able to generate while owning a home.

For example, a few weeks back me and a couple buddies went to VT for the weekend, spent a couple days up there hiking the Adirondacks, going to the shooting range, and eating some really nice meals.

Remember, they need to eat too.