Our goal is to add an additional 25-35 in the next 5 years.

In addition, once you've freed up your equity in your current home and invested it in income-producing real estate assets, consider applying for a couple of FHA multi-family property loans (4 units or lease) which have competitive rates and low down-payments (3.75% at the time of writing this). 

Speak to your banking representative and they can give you some additional options.

that way you can figure out what the  upside is in addition to cash flow.good luck!

These guys take care of all my rentals, and I can not stress enough how professional, efficient, and trustworthy they are.

@AJ Dhillon In addition to what's already been mentioned.

The other thing to keep in mind is to be very careful with the owner staying for six additional months.

In addition, those rentals were with 10 y.fixed, so cashflowed minimally.

I think one thing to remember is that whenever you do something new there's always difficulties as you're doing everything for the first time - so it's probably slow, painful, and not efficient. 

Loss of use is foryour additional expenses if you can not live there due to a covered claim (ie.