Now if its a smokin deal and the 3 to 5% is easily absorbed then its worth it but you still need cash down  .. or you need a friends and family's to help you out.leveraging up 100%  to buy rentals you want to be careful there if you don't have a bunch of cash reserves since your tying up your heloc for the purchase  leverage to the eyeballs can be great if everything plays out perfect  if not it can be highly stressful.  

As far as real estate, you could easily purchase additional units/properties leveraging your gains as down payment.

@Jeremy L Riddle it sounds like it's maybe time to part as friends cashing in on the growth and profits at hand and re-deploy/leverage individually. 50/50 deals are the most dangerous for the point when there is any impasse. 

If you organize one I would be interested and im sure others would be too. 

Plus, looking more long term, if you wanted to leverage any equity later on, it would be more cumbersome if they were both on the same note (unless of course, you pull equity out of them both).  

Steve,The answer is it depends (I hate that answer;).It depends on the amount of time you can commit, the quality of the property you purchase, the type of tenants you have, if you self manage or outsource, how organized you are, etc.As with most things, you should walk before you try to run so I would urge starting 'smaller' and in a few years moving up if you still want to.

I am not going into each conversation looking for a mentor but instead going in thinking how can I add value to them and how could I leverage their skills to assist me along in my career as well.

Leverage can increase your returns substantially. 

If so there are Zero Down Veterans loans you can leverage if you think it is wise to do so.[6] Maybe you look into this and decide it's not for you, and you'd rather own a 7-11 and spend your time writing checks to the soda delivery company--because despite what anyone tells you--it IS work....

I would recommend attending some training sessions organized by the local realtor association with which you plan to align yourself with to help network with the local agents and familiarize yourself with the local loan officers in the area (these events are usually sponsored by the local lender branches) and the start to finish process in the RE transaction.