Leaving their junk in the yard does not count. 

And you can probably figure on only doing 2 deals a year with that money.So in order to do 6 deals a year, you'd need 75k to 150k.And thats not even counting the flips you mentioned.  

just notes and investments of a  short term nature.. plus a building business which really does not count.. its building houses and selling them.. or kind of like flipping .. not really investing.. its a business that goes with the market cycles

, so we will likely be trying to move from our one bedroom apartment to an actual SFH in a year or less.Unfortunately, an average sized home in a mediocre to decent area by us can easily cost $500k or more, not to mention property taxes well over $10k/year.I just got off the phone with a credit union and got pre-approved for a loan for the investment property, however should I go to them for a mortgage on a second house in the future, they will not count any rental income until I've had that MFH for at least two years.My concern is that if I go ahead with the purchase of an investment MFH now, and next year I go for a mortgage on a SFH for our primary residence, we will only be approved for a mortgage of $XXX, whereas if I had never purchased that MFH, we would be approved for $YYY, where YYY is significantly higher than XXX.Depending on the exact purchase price, the mortgage on the MFH would likely only be for around $45k or so maximum, so with a correspondingly low monthly payment, I'm not sure if that's enough to really make a large difference in what I'd be approved for a year down the road, but I'd definitely like to know in advance rather than be surprised by it!

It was scary, but I also count it as the best decision of my life!

However, the appreciation since then has been great, and that is part of what I'm counting on in looking for further investments here.

Just let me know if you are coming so I can let Bdubs know a count.

I make cash offers and hear "no" quite often but I just move on to the next one.In reality, the "all cash" closing I attended today had been extended three or four times too (I lost count) but that was due to govt. ineptness.

The neighborhoods you can reliably count on buying for <$30k are, what I personally, would consider to be D class neighborhoods. 

I have read a lot of post saying that lenders will count the rent you charge as part of your income.