I know just enough about real estate investments to be in trouble

[Robert Thompson]

I got into real estate investing purely by accident! I have three rental properties in three states. 2010 I relocated from CO to SC. I needed to sell my house, but the market was in the tank. A property management company approached me about renting my house, so I did. In 2014 I relocated from SC to NC. Found a property management company in SC and rented it out my house there. Bought a piece of property in NC with a guest cabin. You guessed it, rented out the guest cabin. It's great allowing other folks to pay your mortgages. I would like to buy more property here in NC. Possibly, a multi-family home. I have a large amount of equity in the rental properties. Here is where we run into trouble. My income to debt ratio is high. I'm at 66 percent. Banks don't want to loan you money if you're over 45 percent. I was hoping to find someone who might give me a little advice about finding a lender who will look more at my assets and less at my income to debt ratio. I would also like a little advice on tapping into the equity in my rental property for future investments. Any sage wisdom at this point would be greatly appreciated!