Whether you should rent vacation rental (short term) or long term depends on your goals.

Depending on qualifying income you can go up to 90% LTV or most attractive terms will be 80% of the value or below. 

Together, we negotiated favorable terms with the seller, ensuring a beneficial deal.

Together, we negotiated favorable terms with the seller, ensuring a swift and beneficial transaction.

The other decision I made early on is to focus on long-term rentals for wealth building. 

Got into REI almost by accident and did what you said - shopped for the best terms to make each property perform the best.I did at one point try to consolidate, but any institution I found that didn’t sell mortgages had the worst terms: higher rates and typically ARMs, which I’m grateful for not taking because my rates would be crushing me now.I’ll look into other versions of some of the things you mention like cross colatteral and construction loan but not sure how that would work considering I don’t actually have any construction needs. 

Kiran, real estate is arguably the best long term investment that is offered.

There is somewhat of a "glitch" in the market were rate-term refinances at 80% are available, "punishing" those that buy in cash instead of hard money

I am open to properties that may require minimal renovations if the deal aligns with my investment criteria.My long-term plan is to scale my portfolio deliberately, ideally acquiring multiple properties within the next 1-2 years.

I am hoping to stay in the area medium to long term and would like to meet some investors in the area!