I've been reading for months about leveraging rental properties and I am set on becoming finacialy independent this way. I have made spread sheet after spread sheet. But I'm still lost.

Im 26 and have 40k from my last deployment and zero debt. I make only around 60k a year. now that I'm out of the military it's time for me to move out of my parents house and into my own. But at the same time I want to start investing I live in Indiana where housing is rather cheap.and VA loan is out of question cause I want to be able to rent the home down the road so I think a first look fannie mae loan will be for my first home.

Now my first rental will be a 35k home that will be FHA. After a year of renting in the books I want to really start leveraging properties. I want 10 100k homes as fast as possible. Lets face it I'm greedy and I am determined to do what ever it takes to not work 50-70hrs a week. What loans do I need to take and what steps in order to qualify for these loans my credit is exceptional.obviously I don't want to over leverage or go to fast but I also don't want to just keep buying 35k houses for 20 years.

First- thank you for your service and congrats on putting yourself in a great starting position to get out of the rat race. 

I think the first thing you need to answer is your personal life- when getting married/kids etc.  Assuming you're single (since you live at home), I'd keep personal living expenses as low as possible. Either stay at home or go rent some super cheap place or house hack. You want the majority of your salary working towards your RE goals. 

Make connections locally and you can find some good deals that need love. You can find folks willing to do owner financing with some down. Your rents cover the payments plus. You can buy some properties that need work but are livable and do lease options with them. For example, I'm looking at a property that is ARV of 80K. I'm trying to get it for 30K. It is livable so I'll do a lease option for 55K with 5k down. They pay $800/month and fix it up them selfs. They have equity and when they exercise the option, I'll get the last 20K. So I did no rehab and made 25K plus rents. It's a win for everyone. There are dozen of other ways to increase your portfolio quickly without getting a bunch of bank loans.

when leveraging rental properties from fannie mae what type of loan is that called exactly? Also what are the best ways you have found to get leverage.

@Daniel Miller

There is something in your post that stood out to me. It sounds like you are looking to purchase a home to live in now and rent it out in the future. If so, why don't you think you can use a VA loan? This is certainly your best option and you can use it as long as you will be living in the home now. You can move out and make it a rental down the road just like you can with an FHA loan. Unless you are buying this house as a pure investment property, you can still use the VA loan with 0 down. Now, the best bang for your buck in that case would likely be to use the VA loan to buy a multi family and become a landlord from the start. Any 4 plexes in your area? That will get you up to 4 doors with no money down.

Save about $15k of that $40k you have in an account for an emergency/cap ex fund and use the other $25k as a downpayment on another $100k rental property. That rental could be a duplex or SFR, brining you up to 5-6 doors with just what you have right now.

There are a ton of options with what to do with the cash you have now, I don't know your market or what would be the best bang for your buck there so reach out to the people who do. Go to the REIA meetings in your area and network with people locally here on BP.

Another option, and one that I use, is to use that cash to buy a house well below market value. Put some money into it to fix it up, rent it out and then do a cash out refinance at a market value appraisal and hopefully you will get all your capital back (or close to it). I bought a house in April cash, put some money in, rented it out and will close on a refinance this week at 70% LTV and get all my cash back out. Lots of ways to skin the cat and increase your net worth, good luck!