So you have increased your equity position and have more investable cash than you started with. 

If they would be willing to carry a seller 2nd for a portion of the acquisition, it might help open some doors to a 1st position lender who may not want to leverage 80% LTV.

There is the positive cash flow while having a tax loss benefit too consider with this method, but if you 'buy and hold forever' (somewhat our plan also) there comes a point where with rising rents and declining interest payments when that tax loss benefit goes away.

Hi everyone,I am 19 years old and a freshman at UBC (Vancouver). I recently became very passionate about real estate, and decide to do some investing this summer.I currently rent a small basement room for $800/month. ...

I’m just trying to be as strategic as possible with this meeting so that I have as much data as I need.

Hopefully, I'm able to place myself in a better position by the end of summer to go with an FHA loan.  

I won't be in a position to even refinance my current home until sometime next year, and then I can begin the process of building the rental empire one brick at a time. 

@Brian Medansky I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my realtor, lender, inspector, attorney all saying the area is set to appreciate in the next 3-5 years.

I've since bought a fourth and really like the business, mainly because I haven't had any negative cash flow property yet and they all start to have positive cash flow within two years. 

I also understand that I may only be able to acquire 3 properties in the exchange.Also, getting in a position where I could finance that many at once poses a challenge.