The winners in 2026 will be those who can identify quality assets in an environment where not all deals are created equal.

You might find that building a solid relationship with one quality lender might be far easier and better for you to more quickly scale your portfolio. 

That leaves real opportunity for normal investors to buy quality assets without getting crushed by competition.3.

Use the snowball method, but only on one loan at a timeTake all excess cash flow from the portfolio + some of your salary (since you mentioned you’re open to that), and attack the smallest balance first.

. #1 This method of investing is not for those with low amount amounts of Capital.

If your place is good quality and similar to other places around you might be able to get a payment standard that matches what others are paying.

Over the past three years, I’ve been using most of the major off-market techniques.One standout method has always been pulling data and feeding it into a call center to generate off-market leads.

High quality locations, recent construction, and good leases / occupancy history will yield a little better than 6.25%, the opposite will yield a little worse.  

Also are you using multiple credit cards with this method or all business expenses on one CC and categorizing according? 

Despite all the horror stories about Baltimore I can tell you living here a while there are plenty of good areas in the city where you can get the same quality of tenants as you do in DC.