So what do you do with the houses - leave them vacant?

The basic demo was complete and the property was ready for reassembly when we bought it, leaving fewer surprises.

Our first accepted offer was a 320 unit deal that we contracted, put up non-refundable (yeah, I know) earnest money, and thought we had our financing and money in place to do the deal.  2 weeks before closing a major (several million) partner pulled out leaving us short of the funds needed to close. 

Best tips are take it slow and make sure you have significant reserves when you leave your w2 also don't buy a company car if you already have a car just to say it's for work.

My W2 income is very high (+$500k), excellent credit, but I hate my job and I want to leave within a year or two. 

However, if you pay her, she will leave.

I also always keep my rent increases in line with the local market, so sometimes I'll have tenants threaten to leave sometimes, and once they do their research they realize that it wouldn't make sense at all to find another property and end up paying the same thing.

I am ok and usually do leave some of my money in a refi.

@Hai Le - Usually you have to provide written notice / 30 day notice if you decide to not renew their lease or even just asking a tenant to leave.

Flexibility in Loan Terms: Josh offered a unique hybrid product that let my friend lock in a portion at a fixed rate while leaving the rest variable.