I have Forest Gumped my way here and need advice.

[Micah Brewer]

Ok, so I sold my primary residence in Fl. and made some cash. When I moved to VA I paid cash for a town home and put renters in it. So far that has worked out great. Now I am selling my current primary and am looking to get more serious into real estate. I guess my main question is, should I pay cash for another house or a duplex? Or should I spread my cash out over multiple properties using it for multiple down payments? If I pay cash on a duplex, can I still use my equity as a down payment on other properties? This seems like it might be the safest way of moving forward. This would not be a house hack, I'm probably going to pick up something else for my primary...

[Jaycee Greene]

Quote from @Micah Brewer:

Ok, so I sold my primary residence in Fl. and made some cash. When I moved to VA I paid cash for a town home and put renters in it. So far that has worked out great. Now I am selling my current primary and am looking to get more serious into real estate. I guess my main question is, should I pay cash for another house or a duplex? Or should I spread my cash out over multiple properties using it for multiple down payments? If I pay cash on a duplex, can I still use my equity as a down payment on other properties? This seems like it might be the safest way of moving forward. This would not be a house hack, I'm probably going to pick up something else for my primary...

Hey @Micah Brewer, welcome to the BP Forum! Everyone's definition of "safe" is different and it's relative...often to the amount of cash/capital you have on the sidelines.

In general (and maybe there will be some lenders that can opine more on this), but you're not able to use the "equity" in other properties as a down payment unless you sell those properties or do a cash out refi to convert the equity to cash.

I think it would help the forum reply to you if you provide some actual numbers (current value/equity of properties, cost of properties you want to acquire, etc.).