If you increase your overhead too quickly without adequate cash reserves, you're setting yourself up for a quick ride to the foreclosure steps.

You have to know what you are doing before you do it, or else your just a passenger along for the ride.

"p137 , steve dexter's book about real estate debt.personally for me , every thing i have seen is get started. the sooner you start the better.1. learn every day , read everything you can.2. don't buy those real estate seminars, any public library has all the information you could ever need.3. join your local reia group , (I have yet to do this step)4. clean your credit up.5. don't buy over your head. you should put at least 20% down and if its vacant for 6 months , you can handle the expense.6. enjoy the ride, more millionaires and conversely more bankruptcies are created through real estate. be smart.

But it should be one hell of a ride.

If you feel good about this, then you're in a safe place and should let it ride for a few more years until you have another $50k or more in equity and houses are selling for $500k.  

Do I bite the bullet now in order to get a couple more houses or do I wait and ride the cash flow? 

We would the weather for hail storms, which are frequent in Texas, then race to the library to get the Haines listings and beat all the other companies to the work with a simple phone call.

Running any business is like riding a bike.

Where there is a will, there's a way.Others have brought the numbers in very well, so I'll let those ride for now.One thing you need to do, before anything else, is pull current comps.

We'll be house-hacking a 2-family detached house in Union City, NJ, about 12 min bus ride from Manhattan Port Authority.