Regarding the most effective way to scale a real estate portfolio, it really depends on how passive you'd like to be, your chosen market/s and risk tolerance. 

Or as the original poster put it- just don’t finance them and pay all cash, then you could do it with 40 luxury rentals at $10k a month.Now to rant - it’s great to have a goal, but start with one and see how it goes….

I had a seller actually pay tenant’s security deposit to new landlord up front and then paid for movers to get the tenant out before closing.

Also in your area that is a little rural if its well and septic makes sure those are checked by professionalsif it has city sewer make sure you do a sewer scope on the line running to the street.. and of course make sure roof is good etc etc.and for sure you can offer what you want to pay.. they may not accept it but its up to you.also ask title company to give you current owner.. and if you want simply make a back up offer in cases the wholesaler cant close this happens a lot and you get a better deal. 

pid=2114Houston Real Estate Highlights in August, 2024:• Single-family home sales declined 8.3 percent year-over-year• Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes went from 43 to 47 days• Total property sales were down 11.2 percent with 8,730 units sold• Total dollar volume declined 8.8 percent to $3.5 billion• The single-family median price was down 0.3 percent to $336,940• The single-family average price rose 0.9 percent to $421,912• Single-family home months of inventory registered a 4.5-months supply, up from 3.2 months last August• Townhome/condominium sales continued to decline, falling 16.7 percent, with the median price statistically flat at $226,000 and the average price declined 1.2 percent to $258,952.

However 2 things to note: 1) DSCR loans for future investment property acquisitions do not care about your DTI (DTI only really matters when buying a new primary or any time you are using a Fannie/Freddie/Ginnie loan).  2) After 12 months of proof of someone else paying it for you, you may be able to omit it from your DTI calculation. 

They literally wrote the book on midterm rentals and cover how to analyze markets.

After buying one property how soon can you put yourself back in the market if you do have enough reserved for down payment/closing cost? 

The rental market is really good, and rents are 1% of what he's selling them for.

For help with the section-8 process, it's very important to have a PM that's familiar and connected with the HUD programs in the selected market.