A third option is to try and wholesale a few houses first to build up cash to buy a better rental house.

They are a great resource if your property is in King, Pierce or Snohomish county.  

The strategy I used to build up a large portfolio of SFRs was acquire foreclosure, rehab, rent and refinance 90 days later based on fair market value which allowed me to cash out my original down payment funds + additional equity to use towards the next project.

After 8 months with no end in sight, we cancelled and bought an equivalent REO. 2011 my goal is to get maybe another, but I'd first like to build up my cash reserves first.

Total money you receive as income is more than total expenses.2) Appreciation - Increase in the value of your property over the rate of inflation.3) Equity buildup - This comes from paying off your mortgage principal balance each month.

Yes double closing is what people do when doing REO's however I suggest you do normal assignments until you build up some cash as dealing with REO's is a little bit more complex.

- I can dig more deeper and look for potential tax benefit, appreciation and equity buildup benefits, but at the end of the day it is –ve cashflow.

Sell the puppy and build up some cash.

You may be better going with a Broker with lower desk fees and fewer leads until you can build up and move to a larger office with higher desk fees but more leads.

It doesn't matter if you make $10 an hour or $100, if you save some of your money, you'll build up that next egg you want.If you have $1 million, you can easily get 3% from a bank just for CDs.