This is my first real estate property, but it's older and the loan amount is small (less than $200k), so the banks and credit unions I shopped around at are asking for higher interest rates.

Either way, I'll be good on the financing as I have already spoken to the bank.  

All of these properties are in the New Haven County area and are bank owned.

Also - this is assuming I have $1.25M of cash in the bank and have a net worth of $5M which I do not have. 

@Michael Randle it would take a ridiculous amount of programming excel to replace the workflow of Quicken, and then I'd still be downloading transactions from the banks manually.

It's a more illiquid asset and using a heloc to pay living expenses could end up with losing the home to the bank.

I'm currently working a 10-year plan for retirement, at which point I would like to relocate (to the Outer Banks, N.C.) and allow one of my sons to take over the mortgage payments on my residence (financed at 3% thanks to a loan mod from several years ago).Credit is okay but not great.

have you ever borrowed money from a bank to buy a property?

As in, if a bank will loan me money at 4% over a 30 year period, I will take every penny I can get and invest it in....well, lots of things.

@Blake Edwards  It's certainly illegal here in MA, plus there's a whole list of laws you have to follow with deposits, including disclosing the bank where the deposit is held and paying any interest earned to the tenant.I'd check CA laws, but it's unlikely that you can do what you're proposing.