During the day I'm a financial analyst for USANA Health Sciences and I enjoy my job there.I had a college professor who was a huge success in real estate and he opened my mind to not only real estate, but just having an investor mentality. 

- but, that would be a nice dilemma to have!]

We have also toyed with the idea of moving to a warmer state (for health reasons) so maybe finding a real estate environment that is more tenable?

Those are solid numbers.Here's my suggestion for your dilemma of your DTI being maxed out since you already bought 5 properties.Why not BUY properties using owner financing as well?

If the dilemma you are having is that you want to make offers on properties you are always able to submit official offers yourself with State of Texas docs.

Since this would be my first investment deal, I feel I'm missing something, and want to know what to be on the lookout for.Here's the facts:6 family home in a b/c class neighborhood, with a lower than average crime rate100% occupiedRenovated 4 years ago Population is steady, jobs are mostly in health care and warehousing/distributionBuilding is older (1890's in a neighborhood mostly built in 1940's)County is about 100,000 peopleLocated right in the center of townI recognize the property may be worth less because of its age, but certainly not 40-50% less, especially when it was renovated a few years ago.

Health, Happiness & Blessings!

The neighbors next door are not my tenants- in this case do I need to take action to reduce the smell of the smoke since my tenants are claiming it is causing health side effects?

One dilemma we are pondering is whether we want to build the building using gas for heating or do we want to go all electric.

Inspectors office written for a local duplex also going through our code/zoning dilemma & I believe the fee was just $2500.