I am currently enjoying my 1k monthly income with no debt, and I am nervous about leveraging.  

It's stopping me from scaling to a much larger portfolio leveraged versus a smaller paid off portfolio.  

Quote from @Jonathan Chan: I used my Mom's to help her retire by becoming a lender on real estate projects, but curious to see how others are leveraging their SDIRA.  

Whether you’re offering services, partnering on projects, or exploring your own investments, leverage your expertise to identify undervalued properties and add value.

In Phoenix, where I’m based, or in markets like San Antonio, the best realtors do more than just list properties.. they go “driving for dollars” to find oppurtunity, leverage their local networks (probate attorneys, CPAs, divorce attorneys) and carefully analyze each property’s cash flow.

If your properties are generating solid cash flow or have appreciated significantly, you might be following a “smart leverage” strategy, à la Grant Cardone.

There’d need to be a lot of rehab work/managing that would require you to put in that many hours.From a financial perspective, it seems like the highest leverage way to keep buying more properties is leveraging your W-2’s and then being work optional.

You would be 100% leveraged, and you'd have 2 separate loans (One HELOC and traditional mortgage).

Fascination in one type of market has led me to another, real estate investing, and now I'm looking to leverage my ability with numbers in the REI space as well.

@William Taylor so many options...Use your RE knowledge to: WholesaleFind rental deals to sell to investors locally or here on BPStart leveraging your personal contacts to build your sales businessFind a motivated seller willing to do seller financing:- Move in worst room or basement, rent out all the other rooms for max cashflow- You could even live in the basement and STR the rest of the house