My final advice would be to read some books on the subject of being a landlord and real estate investing.

There are entire books of over 1000 pages written on portfolio management and asset allocation.

BiggerPockets just released an e-book on Amazon.com for 0.99 that is a great synopsis of what you need to do to screen a tenant.

This is a topic I could write a book about, in fact I did (CFFU).It could happen within 2 years, but it’s unlikely, and here is why.

I would like to invest in some blue chip stocks, but will probably wait until I have at least 4 rentals pushing out cashflow.

That's a great deal in most people's books.

We're looking at leveraging that equity to buy more property, but want to be smart.The question is this: We've heard horror stories of banks calling notes out of the blue (second hand information for sure, but) or at least not willing to re-up (is this a word?)

If you can read and self-teach, then scouring this forum, blogs, and books is a cheap (Or FREE) education.

Lots of podcasts, books and forums.

Atascadero is a great town too - my wife always stops by Bucket of Books when we are in the area.