All great advice but until you start to really understand and choose a strategy of choice that works for you, we really can't help much but give general advice. 

@Ian HallAs a new investor I certainly don’t want to bite off more than I can chew with a 4plex but am curious to hear what you have to say about starting off with a larger scale.

Hello, work load has increased, we've just purchased several houses and I'm looking for reliable contractors that can take on larger projects.

If it's not a good investment property the numbers will tell you.Jaron,We brought the present home in 2012 as our first home.Its a new construction.I did run the numbers on the existing home.As I mentioned we paid 212k in 2012.Took an FHA and refinanced to conventional a few yrs later.(3.5% for 30 yrs Balance on mortgage 160k).Mortgage runs to 1200/month.Our property can be rented out as is for 2000/month.Its a 4 bed 3 bath and rents in our community start with 2000 range for our sq footage.I want to pay off this house asap in next 5-6 yrs and free up money to invest in another house.The houses in our community are in 450k+ range.Hubby is preapproved is not the reason for another house.The other house is right opposite to our community  and is a 5 min walk from our house.So its not a big move.Except that I want to move closer to our kids friends.Our lender metioned Heloc maybe a good choice for further investments.I want to explore Home Equity Loan route to be safer.I am still a layman in Heloc route and dont want to burn fingers.Any advice.P.S.What is COC? 

On your house I think I would consider making the front porch/stoop wider with a post at each end of the roof overhang, (or maybe an an even larger front deck if it is the kind of neighborhood where you might want to sit out front).

-You could purchase another property and use your 25-30k combined with private/hard money to take it down.The choice is yours, stay hungry!

Steel seems to be the most common choice for class C rental remodels.

Once you know that number you can make a choice.   

@Jesus Roman How did you find your wholesalers, I'm having no success with the larger companies that send out email blast with deals that have little to no meat on the bone.

And house hacking was my strategy of choice.