Foreclosures are going to owner occupants before it's open to investors, or they get bid up.No matter what route you go, you've got to creative, and the tried and true old school methods still work.

You mentioned you purchased directly through a seller so I am guessing no agent was involved?

The reason why American business (this includes real estate businesses) have returned, on average, higher returns is because of the risk involved.

It will be a project that involves some $$ investments.

My opinion is that it is all up to you and how involved you want to be.

Now that you have achieved the goal of paying down debt you can leverage your good credit to obtain either personal lines of credit or if you have equity in your personal home you may leverage that as down payment money on a acquisition loan or use that to purchase low costing investment property, depending on what market(s) you are looking to invest in.I've personally was in your same position and used personal loans to outright buy investment properties in various markets and I wish I would have known about lines of credit prior to getting involved with loans.

Otherwise, you should be able to go up to 10 loans through conventional methods.

What is the most conservative methods for tapping into the equity and slowly building my property portfolio.

It's simple: He complies with the payment dates and method detailed in the lease or you move to evict him.

My wife Aradia and I are a few years out from retiring from the military and have decided to get involved with real estate investing.