Hi James,Fo me I was able to have 4 total properties with 20% and when I bought my 5th and 6th I need 25% and actually 30% for my last deal.But there is some debate if you have 4 investments and you buy a primary making it your 5th you may be able to get away with 20% b/c I believe they are looking at investment properties.

Take 75% of rents-PITI and add to your personal gross income.If you want a conventional conforming loan (best interest etc) use 28% of your gross income for PITI on your new home.There are more aggressive formulas but if want 3.875% 30yr then the above will get you there, assuming good credit and high quality property, and not exceeding 36% gross total personal debt including PITI for home.

I had all the properties appraised upon mom's passing two years ago and these three totaled $1,300,000 in value.

Totally agree with Mike there - getting an excellent team in place will save you huge amounts of time and effort, which you can then re-invest in home duties or more work, depending on your personal situation - choosing good teams is a key skill here in my view.

Now if you approached me for a loan and asked for 67k and would pay me 13k in interest, with first position mortgage, and the total hold time was reasonable.

For what it's worth, I've made a choice to keep my S8 revenue under 20% of my total revenue.

Do you have a trusted association, one who's totally unrelated to this transaction, who can go check out this area and the property?

Totally forgot to figure in a manager's and bookkeeper's fee!

My question is, when I present the contract to the seller do I make the purchase price of the property the amount that the seller wants 5k, or the total amount with the 19k in taxes plus the estimated rehab amount plus my fee added to the amount the seller asks for?

The roof is totally gone now and the second floor is exposed to the elements.