So if you buy your first mortgage as an owner occupant and you want to buy an investment property, then all your debts combined should not exceed 50% of gross income.

invest at DST as backup, preferably w/ Sec 721 combination. 

Usually a living trust is treated as a disregarded entity, and a husband and wife LLC if established correctly can be treated as a qualified joint venture so it seems as if you could report your combined rental activity directly on schedule E (i.e., no partnership reporting required). 

Running numbers - to buy a 4plex is looking around $800k, and still needing upgrades, Out of state investor here so most likely doing 25% DP.Any ideas what land cost, architectural, permits, construction costs combined, would come to?

Either he has really high expenses, very low income, or is in a high cost of living area (or some combination there of). 

@Vidal Preciado Price appreciation is a combination of stupidity and desirability....every time I go to Miami Fl everyone is driving Bentley's...every time I go to San Diego, everyone is driving a Honda civic and living off the HELOC they pulled on their primary...how does this make sense...don't get me wrong, I'll hang at Balboa Park any day, but the desirability of the location is questionable...nice for vacation, but how long will prices rise....and appreciation is super location specific across asset classes and property types....it certainly does not happen on a macro level.Contrary to @Dan Heuschele comments, San Diego really is not appreciating steadily...as an example: What you are seeing in locations like San Diego and LA is growth driven by poor judgment...only 20% of the population can actually afford to live in the city. 

I don’t know what market is for retail space in my area yet, but I know that the two apartments and the SFR are all under market by about $500 combined.

GIS Parcel #s: 115040, 114988Google maps view: https://www.google.com/maps/@3...REIA posting: https://www.triadreia.org/Prop...From the info we can gather on the GIS page, the parcels were assessed for combined lands and buildings value of 168.9k and are actually listed at $71.5k.  

Planning on using a combination of hard money and lending How did you add value to the deal?

Some background: My goal for my first investment property is a combination BRRRR/house hack.