I am getting close mentally to where you are with your job...32 years here and counting and I am almost ready to blow out the door and not look back. 

It doesn’t matter if you have income based payments or if you are in deferment....the debt counts to what your payments are supposed to be.

You have about 15 days as a buffer so you must make it count.

You might get low quality/few leads here and there but don't count on it as any major part of your business. 

We've also skipped the refi on a couple deals because the effort was not worth the amount we'd be able to get out.It's also worth considering the macro picture, lending is relatively loose right now and appraisers are fairly reasonable. 

We lowered it $15,000 to $264,900, about a week or so later we got an offer and counted back at full asking, they accepted! 

I try to filter as closely as possible based on square footage, neighborhood, and bedroom count. 

I love hearing how quickly people have been able to take one property and transfer it into a small portfolio of 10+ properties, but I'm a bit befuddled as to how to move beyond where I am right now, other than aggressively paying off my HELOC to free up those funds for another down payment.After doing many deals on my own and financing many deals as a mortgage broker I'll have to say that if you want to acquire quickly and ramp up those unit counts and ultimately get at the cashflow number sooner it mostly boils down to the question on how much equity can you create that can be leveraged?

If you buy a cash-flowing rent property, the rental income counts towards your income. 

I get it.. but most lenders want you to send HUDS of your deals showing you as the principal.. or names of your LLC's you owned the property in.. so they can verify by public records your experience.. working for others generally will not count as experienced flipper..