That would be a wise route, and would allow you to grow your bottom line quickly through the power of leverage.

Plenty of education time.

Unbeknownst to me, I followed Ken’s advice on how to overcome this problem: leveraging your skills with OPM.Here is a brief summary of how I went from living in an 600 sq ft apartment in 2012 to owning a house in Seattle and 35 rental units across nine buildings in Everett.

It's amazing what leverage does when everything goes right.

We also have about 40% equity in the house so the thinking was we could take that and leverage more than we are now to step our game up so to speak.  

That sounds strange, but you have nothing holding you back from venturing out of your security...because you have lost that security blanket that was your job.I would venture to say, that most of the success stories in history, started out where you are right now...me included.So, with nothing holding you back, and with plenty of time on your hands (time will always be your greatest asset...since you can never get it back), if you want to get into REI, you need to do the following:1 - Learn,2 - Learn some more,3 - Keep learning.Places to learn (before you say "that costs money"), that don't cost any money are:1 - Online education sites that have free articles written by experts in their fields.2 - Free e-books, that you can get online.3 - Joining your local REIC's to both learn and network.4 - ...and never stop learning...even when you become a success at this (and you will)Also, three very critical actions you MUST follow to be a success:1 - Always think possitive.2 - Train yourself to think of future "obstacles" as temporary problems...and you are the problem solver. 

I am trying to find a short sale or foreclosure with FHA to buy than get a 203k loan than live in one unit and rent the rest out for a goal of net 750 to 1200, equity to have 25k to 35k in the property, i have 40k cash for it could get access for more but I don't wanna tie up too much I want to leverage  my funds.

This is the capital I would like to leverage into a full times flipping business. 

Don't assume the city won't try to call your bluff and hope you just take their word for it instead of educating yourself. 

I do both sales and property management, so networking with investors who are interested in Raleigh has been a big part of my business.You also can't beat the (FREE) education you will get here!