Thanks @Louise Alexander and @Jay Leisten for the welcome, I'm making it a priority to hit as many meetups as possible, so I'm sure we'll see one another soon enough!

you could rent the place for 6 months until its "seasoned" and the bank will not hit you with that mortgage, after the refi- you can keep or sell.

I don't want to keep taking the hit to my credit score every time I apply so I decided to just wait it out until I know I can qualify.  

Our first plan was to use and FHA 203k loan but being that my wife was a house wife and we were living on one income pretty much the last 3 years my credit took a BIG hit.

I won't allow personal checks because it can take up to 10 days before I find out the check bounced.When I hit a tenant with a 3-day Pay or Quit, I serve it through the Sheriff and it costs $50.

We took a hard hit from an issue with the city regarding an after-the-fact permit and everything going wrong on each property this year so we've only got about $8k in cash.

My goal is to have efficient, teachable methods, rent collection, listings, etc, so that when I am ready to hire an employee/employees, they can be trained to run necessary aspects of my business without skipping a beat.Any and all advice is welcome, and I thank you in advance!

Look at you with your gold mine joke....you're going to fit in perfectly around here ;)Sounds like you've hit the ground running with your real estate hustle.

You have hit the JACKPOT of resources for real estate investors.

I know a local investor who only buys duplexes and he has great luck, but it can be very hit or miss with the tenants.