A personal home is a life style choice not a investment.Due to the fact that a personal home is more expensive to own and maintain renting while saving to invest is a smarter option for those wishing to concentrate on investing.

The Speaker did a Good Job but then once he talked about the cost & fees & stuff saying people can pay $197 to stay & continue getting educated it went down hill, then started showing interior  decorating of a kitchen that was remodeled & i just was like "wow lol". 

I plan on continuing to save for more rentals, but I figure if I can use the equity in my primary to speed things up a bit, that might not be such a bad thing.  

My wife and I want to purchase the property, continue to rent the four existing units while the 5th unit is being renovated, and then move into the renovated unit ourselves.

Make goals, start learning, execute, continue learning and refining your goals along the way.

Home style doesn't usually matter unless it's an emotional investor.

Prices in the area continue to trend up and there are 7 townhouse units going up down the block and each is asking $375k. 

They know you don't have another option, so they will continue to raise the cost.

Again, not something that I feel is actionable.The owner below happens to be on the Board and continues to act as a member of the board during this dispute btw.  

Now if you have a dollar cost averaging style, flipping/ turn around model, trend following, momentum, or any of a countless number of other philosophies you may not have the same feelings about cash and that's fine.