You're in a great area, we are finishing up another great portfolio refi there right now.Hard money certainly allows investors to scale their businesses faster by leveraging most of the financial burden.

A helpful comparable might be running your numbers again, but using a weighted average of your total debt across your properties (or at least the properties you acquired with the cash from the debt on the leveraged property) to give you a better idea of how the leveraged property is performing.You may disagree, but if you otherwise think the property is a winner and you’re happy with the overall portfolio return and can continue to pay down the debt service across your portfolio, might be worth hanging on to.

BUT, if you use an FHA on a 3 family, you can collect rent and save faster for the next deal.If a house wont qualify for an FHA, that means it needs some work and most likely you can get a good deal.

We sold the house faster than expected.

When you are buying carpet, polyester is cheaper, but also shows foot wear much faster than nylon.

I was contemplating partnering with other investors if I were to go the larger unit-complex.These are my goals and options:Option one:Continue looking for deals while saving and educating myselfmove forward on first property self managedOption two:Get real estate license for side-pay to increase cash flow and knowledge of market as I am new to Florida.Continue to look for deals while saving and educating myselfmove forward on first property (ideally with funds generated solely through real estate to allow me to accumulate assets at a faster rate)If you're in the Florida or massachusetts market please feel free to connect with me.

It's a very important aspect that you point out the " the weight of credit score requirements likely proportional to the income".

Let that sink in for a moment.If you talk to people you will see that the first properties take a while (like 6-8 years) to replace your active income, but once you have 5 or 6 you will be able to grow faster than for the first few.

San Diego makes every long term list of highest ROI locales.For over 60 years San Diego has appreciated in the long term much faster than inflation. 

You took on a duty that is better done by a professional and the insurance company will drop you faster than a hot potato if they find you are stepping outside of your lane.Good luckSigned - a CPA with 20 years of experience who also serves on 3 HOA boards.