fha mfh owner occupied 3% -10% down rent one of the units out while living in it ( house hacking) vs conventional non owner occupied investment 20-25% down. requires 6 months of reserves and funds must be seasoned for a minimum of 2 months also. my first property was out of state investment but if I was staying in the same state as my property I would have done fha 3-5% down to save on my down payment

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out my first step and looked at a ton of properties, everything from SF to duplexes and tri's to store fronts and self storage. 

If you have reserves for vacancy and can turn over the units a rent increase is ok.

In those "expenses" make sure you hold back on reserves as well. 

As a newly minted realtor I am leaning toward using cash out refinances to take 50% equity positions out of a few of my rentals to buy more properties and leave my nearly 1 mil cash reserves on hand for other opportunities; index funds, huge dips in the real estate market (which I am not expecting based on my research) at least not any time soon.

You do not want to try to flip properties if you have no cash reserves.

We've talked to a bank, two mortgage lenders, and a credit union about refinancing and each of them have told us they require us to have in savings a reserve of 6 months of the mortgage payment, plus 2 months of payments for our primary residence (amounting to a little over $12k for our situation).

Hi @DJ Henderson if you're truly purchasing with all cash then you're not adding any debt to your personal balance sheet, but you're also changing the mix of assets you hold (you would have a property and less cash reserves, vs. more cash and no property.)  

I'd keep the remaining $100K for reserves/emergency fund, FUN MONEY, donations, and put the rest in a CD.  

We just want to do what is best for the business and what will help set us up for what is in store next.