What does it take to truly find financial independence?

I recently went to a bunch of the credit unions in Philadelphia (American Heritage, Sun Federal, PFCU, Trumark Financial, PSECU, and Franklin Mint) to see the terms of their HELOCs.

This process has allowed me the opportunity to learn how to make financial, marketing, and staffing decisions with someone else's investment (we're privately owned).

We asked to see financials and there were crickets.

My wife and I are finishing up some projects on our current SFH and then we're going to do final financial preparations to be able to jump when we find our deal.

I'm new at REI and I have a broker who would partner with me, but himself is overextended financially. 

I have owned 1 home in the past (bought at the trough during the Financial Crisis, renovated, lived in it, rented it for a year, and then sold it for quite a bit more than we paid).

So based off this calculation I determined that my portfolio is strong enough to move on with my expansion plan into a new market.Business expenses as % of total expenses : 70%   1) Fixed Expenses:        a)Monthly Mortgages: 45% b)Property Taxes: 18.7%c)Utilities Expenses: 14.8% d)Licenses & Insurance:  5.4% 2) Variable expense - Water bills + repair expense : 16%  Personal Expense as % of total expenses: 30% My monthly living expensesa)Housing: 39.7% b)Child Care: 25.4%c)Living expense: 22.2% d) Food: 7.9 %e) Insurance: 4.8Income 1) Total Income - 100%  A) Rental Income: 42%  B) Wage income (W-2) : 26 %  C) House Flipping Revenue: 23%  D) Property Management Revenue: 5%  E) Stocks/Dividends: 4% Please let me know if you would like help walking through this process as it has been super helpful to understand my financial situation or send you the spread sheet I used.  

I am meeting with banks and some local connections I have with real estate agents to start getting a feel on my position financially as well as get a feel for the local market.

However, the landlord may take the tenant to court based on non-payment of rent increase, if this happens, the tenant may argue to the judge that the increase is unconscionable.