Technically I'm not starting my career in real estate, I have 4 rentals, I was pretty much an accidental landlord, that started out with 2 rentals and now I'm up to 4, I credit this to the recession prices, I got lucky, I wasn't savvy, just a hard worker. I quit my job last year and finishing getting organized with the vacation rental side of my business and by November will be ready to tackle this new phase in my real estate career full steam ahead and grow my business.

This is my current situation, 4 rentals, plus my own home:

Home 1 - Vacation Rental - worth about $160K - Owe 42K (conventional 4.25)

Home 2 - Vacation Rental - worth about $185K - Owe $50K (conventional 4.25)

Home 3 - Long Term Rental - worth about $165K - House free and clear

Home 4 - Long Term Rental - worth about $95K - House paid off but have lien from SBA Owe $30K

Home 5 - Primary Home - worth about $200K - Owe $120K (FHA, 3.75 BUT also pay PMI so in reality it's 4. something)

All my houses are doing really well, I tried to get rid of the cheapest one to finance buying a more high-end home but no bites so just kept it as a rental which is fine by me.

My goal is to acquire more properties in my area (suburbs north of Detroit or something close to downtown Detroit) or in South Florida (used to live there and have family there), my options would be:

- Property to flip (have a friend contractor that has done work for flippers so I would partner with him)

- Long term rental

- Vacation rental

My first hurdle would be financing, I was trying to hold on to my high stress job until I acquired at least 1-2 more properties but it was my health or 1-2 more properties so I chose my health. So now I'm self employed, all the houses are under my name, which is something else that I want to take a look into (maybe create an LLC(s))

My plan is start listening to as many podcasts as possible, start contacting banks to see what type of financing I can qualify for and take it from there. What would you experienced investors do in my situation? Any particular way you would use the houses to help finance other properties?

Thank you very much in advance for the advice!

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