Maintenance can rack up if the elevator needs constant patchwork.

Once you are confident you are going to have a steady stream of rehabs it makes more sense to me.

I get around it mentally by not relying on it as sole stream of income and by keeping a good chunk of emergency money.

I'm good with paying them on a couple days of interest to keep them happy and knowing they are getting that constant 12% annualized return and fixed monthly payment.The way we do the transfer is my assistant tracks houses we have that are coming up to close and if we have a private money lender on that property she will find another house to use for the new collateral.

I realized some time ago that I would not be able to reach my financial goals with only a salary, and that setting up multiple income streams seems to be the best bet given my personality and ambitions.

That's a constant that won't change but over time and that is only IF you refinance it.With that being said, your income and savings is sufficient for a number of strategies.

I constantly search using keywords to find potential deals.

(in fact we stole it) & our youngest will live there & run it.At this stage (of our lives) it's the challenges & winning the bid(s) that make life interesting & the constant cash-flow provides for a heck of lot of security. 

I second Jon Holdman that an steady income stream is really helpful in starting in real estate unless there is inherited wealth to work with in the start up phase.

This is a constant tradeoff that is hard to manage.