We are both in agreement that our biggest asset is the equity we have stored in these houses-- about $400k.

We are on the verge of launching our online marketing campaign.

She already owns a home and we are in the process of purchasing a property for her sister.

We have been on this path currently for 2 months and are finally feeling like we are ready to jump into this with both feet. 

Yes some of it is their properties have gone up in price to equity, some of it is they have paid some things down, and some of it looks like retirement planning as older more experienced investors move towards retirement and seem to value cash flow over numbers of doors.We personally like moderate leverage, but we are starting to think in terms of slightly fewer doors that are paid off in 15 years vs having as many totally leveraged properties as possible.

We are looking into selling, she wants to cash out her half of profits and pay the tax on the capital gains.

We are in Illinois.

We are to your north and a little further in-land and {the right} heat pumps work just fine.  

We are looking to start investing in real estate.

we are seeing prices peak in the Portland market the big run up has happened.. but sales are still brisk and your right low end is still on fire.. my wife put a 250k condo in escrow yesterday.. but we were lamenting it took 30 days to get it sold instead of 30 seconds..