I have spent a lot of time wondering what I had gotten myself into, but as the 1st anniversary nears, it has begun to cash-flow.Based on my experience before you go into escrow, I would recommend that you research what 1031 options you have, try to decide on a geographic market (or 3), and determine the type of property you would be comfortable owning.

No need for explanation just like a Job interview.  

Richard nice response and Martin thank you very much for the detailed explanation

Often times for residential loans the lender would prefer to see you own your own home before buying investment properties and it requires additional explanation to the underwriter of the loan.Not owning a home could hurt you in the future, if the prices of houses go up and rents go up significantly, you could wind up having less buying power than you do now.  

After touring a large portion of the metro area with some local brokers and property managers we were able to narrow our geographic parameters a bit. 

When I do my analysis I include that in the 50% rule I don't see why you wouldn't but there may be another explanation or side of things.

If I chose someone more qualified, "We have accepted another applicant for this property".There really isn't any need to discuss further - all you are doing is inviting an argument or long-winded explanation.

Excerpt from the http://honish.com/monster/ website: The quick explanation of the Monster marketing system is this; you identify 18 properties that you would like to "target", they can be any property with an identifiable public data source (expired, NOD, tax lien, FSBO, etc.).

They then said that this rule relates to a specific geographical area so short to say if not all your properties are in that MSA you could have unlimited financed properties and still obtain FHA financing if you can structure and document the file that specific bank's comfort level.Some banks have different comfort levels than others so they'll add additional guideline requirements on top of what is "necessary," these are called "overlays."

What you need to be aware of is trends in your own geographic area.Then, focus on buying at deep discounts.