Preferably as many units as possible but with hidden value in making improvements (the unfinished attic in our current house was a goldmine) a.My feeling is auctions are good place to go for this but I don’t know anything about auctions. 3.Rent a property to live in for the first year I can’t subject my fiancé to living in a gut rehab again 4.Use the cash generated from the property and work during that first year to put together a down payment for a house for us. 5.Re finance the rental property and buy more property.These are my other day one questions: 1.I’m an architect, does anyone have any advice for actively leveraging my skills to help me do this real estate investing thing full time/ what career change could help me ease into this while still having a salary?

Property is on the market for 145k.. currently renting for 1600 which will cover the mortgage if I chose to go that route... my intentions is to acquire it below the asking of 145k, rehab it to force appreciation because they ARV would be in the 200-225k range, so that I can cash out refinance to acquire another property.  

It's hard to say from afar, but the questions to ask would be 1) How much would value would adding that 2 bed apartment add to your current residence and when could you refinance it and 2) Would you be using $30,000 as the down payment on a rental house, or just buying a house for $30,000?

Taking advice from Rich Carey, we are currently working to drive down the principal as much as we can to a point we can refinance and make the numbers work. 

Couple things Im looking into:1) I am still discussing with my CPA but am looking at traceability options to ensure my HELOC interest is deductible under the new Tax Law 2) If I max my HELOC how is my credit score impacted --> how high will my interest become as I look to obtain refinance on a conventional mortage (delayed or 6month full refi)Overall, I think pull out what you need.

I haven't run the numbers on a SFR, but that may be your best bet with the budget. 

Once I see that it has the potential to cashflow, THEN I will do some research to make sure that the ARV can support the refinance to get my cash back out.

You have to refinance to get rid of it.If it’s conventional once I hit 20 percent (which isn’t long since I deal with cheaper properties) I just get it removed

Can you refinance a property into my name if you have a lease with an option on the house?

They need the properties in personal name, not under LLC in order to do HELOC.I am also open to the Cash out Refinance and trying out banks right now.