I'll get my license, do some fix & flips and look into buying small apartment buildings.If you are new here, don't wait 3 years like I did, make up your mind and take action!

I can give you very high level calculation to understand both scenario...Lets say you buy 100K house with 1000 rent... lets compare all cash against leverage...All cash InvestmentYearly return = 12000 (Rent) + 2000 (Appreciation) - 3000 (Tax + Insurance + Capex) = 11000 = 11%LeverageYearly Return = 1000 (Rent Cash flow) + 2000 (Appreciation) + 3000 (Amortization) = 6000 = 6%Now when you leverage investment at 20%, you can buy 5 house from 100KYearly Return of 5 Houses = 6000 X 5 = 30000 = 30%There are more tax benefit in this deal also as your positive cashflow is lower...If you are planning to buy multiple houses, Leverage is always better...

@Travis Weitthoff - I was wondering the same, the seller is a firm that specializes in developing and stabilizing multi family investments on the South Side of Chicago, so I'm going off the assumption that the numbers they gave me were from last years actuals, but not positive.

Hi @Hans Cooke, California has always taken the position that if you sell and 1031 Exchange California real property for out-of-state real property it will still be tax-deferred but they want their "fair share" if you should sell and cash out (pay the taxes) in the future.  

Since I have not heard from this tenant in 3 weeks and he owes 2 months worth of rent, I'm considering his actions abandonment of the unit.What I want to know now is what's the path I take when dealing with a tenant who appears to have abandoned the unit?

@Nicole ChangI am doing the HELOC action now.  

I’m a data junkie and love to learn but there comes a point where you have to take definitive action to add depth to your understanding.For me, one action step has been to learn where the experienced investors are and connect with them to speed up my understanding.

While legally that position may be able to be argued we run into the issues of how did you get it to the property?

We would like to make him the 1st position lien holder on a property that I am purchasing for cash. 

If you think the deal is good enough, you might be able get a hard money lender to take a second position lien against the subject property if you also let them lien your house or another investment.