It has not been smooth at all as most tenants do not want to pay.

Treasury bills are paying 5% and if you stagger their maturity you could have the money ready to go if you find a better opportunity.

A like-for-like property in Mexico is much generally cheaper than in the US but properties in great locations aren't that cheap that you can pay cash for 4 properties with $400k (unless they're minuscule) but you could use financing if you have access to it.8.

Paying off $100K on a loan of 6.75% is the same as investing $100K in an investment that returns a guaranteed 6.75%.

This book also gets into how you budget to pay yourself which is hard to figure when all money is intermixed.

Document everything.I just had a guest at a property that I manage ask for a full refund for a stay he booked last minute, ignored paying a pet fee, ignored my request for the pet fee, asked for an early check in.  

I am not trying to avoid paying for work.

Once you do the rehab you can refi to pay back the HELOC.

Nobody’s going to pay $850k cash for a chance to earn $50k (if they run it as well as you.)

Love listening to all the gurus tell you to just tap into your house's equity to use it to create wealth, but you can't tap into money you can't afford to pay back.