BiggerPockets

Personally I do not own 100's of properties.. not yet anyways, but generally most investors who do aquire a huge amount of properties are not use traditional financing, maybe for the first few but not normally after that.
Different ways of obtaining properties include
owner finaincing
hard or private money financing
lines of credit
master lease (you dont actually own)
theres tons of ways out there..

My strategy is to take the several properties I have, and pay them down as much as possible in a short time, then pull money out of them and use that money for more properties! hope it works! lol
-Scott

P.s. Under real estate finance and legal check out the Creative Real Estate Financing listings..

I work for a firm that owns quite a number of units,both MH and MF. I have no personal interest in being a landlord,but if I did,would begin by learning the MF brokerage business.
From there,you have the platform to both evaluate properties and solicit investors. Many of the larger MF firms in the country began as a result of JV's between themselves and lenders,both public and private.
Many were MF developers,others simply acquired existing product. Obviously,this is a 5-15 year program,but there are many younger investors on this site. Good Luck to you!
(Obviously all this is off in 2012...)

Mikey- I don't currently own hundreds of homes. There were times when I owned over 100 at one time, but currently own around 75. If you count apts, I'm over 200. My wife and I personally (no partners ) have owned a little over 1000 sfrs in our lifetime.

Here are some answers, and you can find lots more in previous posts and threads here on BP.

1.Lenders will count a % of rent from each rental in your qualifying. If you have other income or free and clear properties, this one will be ok. If you package multi homes together, lender will look harder at ability of properties to service the debt, than looking at you.

2. Owner financed properties don't have the same regulations and requirements. Tons of those currently available. Best way to grab multiple properties quickly.

Alan-
1. I've never had experiences to JV with a public lender. I have with private, but only paid higher interest, no share of profits.

Jimmy-
1. If you have some experience, decent income AND gift for gab, I'd start with owner financing on hard to finance properties. MH would fit this category well, as does older properties. Maybe Jon Klaus is awake, and he has had great results with this and can chime in.
2. MF- I subscribe to the theory that more is not always better (except for obtaining more depreciation).
3. If goal is more properties, MH or mf is probably the quickest. If long term creation of real wealth is the goal, I'd prefer newer sfrs. If cash flow is tough in your area and you want to stay there, then your choices and options become less.
I like your thought process and specific plans. I've NEVER had any luck with REO tapes.
I didn't do much in RE for about 25 years, then was challenged. I was told by many that you couldn't create wealth doing it the way I had 30+ years ago. I finally had enough doubters and decided to prove them wrong. Short story is I moved to a new state, TEXAS under 3 years ago. I bought 26 homes in 35 days and the majority were owner financed and ALL were less than 10% down. I did use approx 250K in cash eventually and began buying at foreclosure sale. In 19 months, I purchased or built 68 homes.( now have a subdivision in same area with 20 homes, 10 are mine and 44 lots. Just broke ground on 4 new models) It can be done. Much of the funds used were generated from profits in re-selling rehabbed foreclosures.
I'm sure there are many on here that would think or tell you "it can't be done now". There are others that are ,,,,DOING it. I was told the same thing 3 years ago. Lots more info on this in other threads and posts as to specifics.

Never over expose yourself on the risk and ALWAYS prepare for the rainy day.

You asked:
"Being relatively young what would be the best ways to achieve the goal of acquiring 100+ propertie sin the shortest period of time?"

Start now! Rich

BTW, my current goals have nothing to do with the number of units I want to own, rather I want to have 10k free cash flow per month by the time i'm 30. That is my goal and I feel that with good CF the long term wealth will come.

Jimmy
I don't own hundreds of properties, not even 75 like Rich, I only own 30. But I started at age 19 (age 50 now) and bought a house for $30,000, no money down, seller carry and it rented for $500 a month. I did nothing else for a year, and then sold it for $50,000. And built from there. I would have much more if I didn't go through a divorce, but that is life.

Seller carry financing is your best bet, but you have a better chance if you put some 'skin' in the game (some of your own money). If you cannot refinance your personal residence, since you said it is free and clear, you can give a seller a trust deed on your personal residence to buy something else. You can also talk with private lenders about making a loan on your personal residence. Many private lenders don't mind a first position trust deed if the LTV is under 50%. I just got a small first trust deed with the LTV about 8% from a private lender.

Your best bet right now is to get educated on your market place. Learn values, learn rents, learn neighborhoods, learn property management, learn real estate law, etc.... Make contacts, brokers, appraisers, title representatives, lenders, bankers, handymen, and more. This will prove invaluable as your build your investment portfolio.

And the biggest asset? Patience! "Rome was not built in a day!"

Good Luck
Mike

Mikey,
If you are a new investor (it sounds like you are) the rules for getting financing will have changed before you will start to worry about where to get financing. Things are changing so fast there is little advice someone can give you that is guaranteed to be relevant in 3 years when you start running out of options. Just get in and start building your portfolio. As your expertise grows you will find ways to fund your deals.

Sorry to cut in, but I have the same sitiution here. I currently have 5 properties including my principal residence. I have loans totaling 245k. I want to expand my portfolio but cannot get any more financing due to my debt income ratio. Does any one know of any Portfolio lenders or is my only hope owner financing as well. My properties together are netting 450.00 per month.