Some feedback on your plan: level of comfort with how much you owe is a personal thing, but one thing you could do to go faster is to leave the financing in place as you add properties, then once you've reached the requisite number of properties, attack the mortgages until they are paid off.

Well I hope to leave something more to my children.

I would so wholeheartedly agree with Eric Kubec about practice walking away, even it you leave a little money behind having some people or service on the property for your due diligence.

I'm in the office by 9:30 and I leave by 4.

Using 401k money helped me get part of the down pmt money for the apt building that allowed me to leave my job for ever:) To me money locked up in a 401k might at well be money in a hole in the back yard.

If I could make an inexperienced criticism I'd say this one and only criticism:A $3.3K profit seems too small, this leave almost no room for error.

Anyone else had problems with tenants leaving belongings in the hallways/stairways?

I wish I could talk my hubby into leaving his job.

Also, as a side note, if $14k is all you have (or will have once you get your refund), you're not leaving much for repairs/reserves.

Rich, I never leave them out.