MY SUGGESTION: invest in yourself by buying hard copy books and training on the foundation topics you wish to develop skills (RE legal, title, escrow, financing, notes, etc.).

If you were able to buy 2 duplexes as replacements then you would own MORE property so that any market appreciation is magnified and you might have MORE loan principle to pay down further building wealth that you don't see just by looking at cash-flow. 

I say this even as I believe SFR dips this current year--which means it's a buying opportunity-- because I believe as much as mortgage "demand increases".

We’d also like to buy a house to move into in the near future and of course dropping $100k of savings into property 2 would delay that.

I told them my buy box multiple times and would still get "leads" that didn't even fit my criteria.

Hi Brandon,It's likely more effective to look for private lenders at those ranges as most investors buy cash or use private money at those ranges.

I'm trying to BRRR and add value to cash out refi in 3-6 months to buy another.  

If I could rewind 15 years and start over again, here are the things I would focus on:1) Buy an easy cosmetic rehab.

One court case says that you don't have a business until you buy your first property.

In our little town, Buy & Holds will probably be the best strategy, but we are open to all sorts of techniques and methods.