Check with a couple local PMs about what rent they would charge and what it would cost you.

But you can get a 3-4 bedroom house, rent out the other rooms while you live there and will probably get further ahead.Look at your current expenses and see what you can do to pay down your existing debt as you mention it is restricting how much you can borrow-see if you can increase your income and work on saving more (and spending less) to get to where you need to be faster.  

Some investors refinance into a HELOC or cash-out refi to unlock funds, others use portfolio loans if they want to grow faster.

But if you’re just layering on another high-payment loan to chase a slim margin, you’re growing exposure faster than your safety net.My Advice: the deal itself isn’t terrible, but your reserves are the choke point.

Here’s a professional perspective on your options, considering both strategy and risk:Option 1 – Rent your primary home (house hack your existing property):Pros:Generates immediate cash flow if your rent covers your mortgage and other expenses.Keeps your home appreciating in a market that may continue to rise.Builds experience as a landlord while keeping your current neighborhood and lifestyle.Cons:You’ll need to manage tenants or hire a property manager.Risk of vacancy, damage, or difficult tenants.Your cash flow might be modest if your mortgage is high.Option 2 – Sell, downsize, and invest in multi-family or smaller homes:Pros:Frees up home equity for multiple investments.Potentially faster path to portfolio growth and cash flow.Diversifies risk by spreading investments across properties.Cons:Transaction costs (selling, buying, moving) reduce immediate capital.You lose current home appreciation.Larger learning curve managing multiple rental properties.Key Considerations:Your risk tolerance and lifestyle goals: Do you want to stay put or scale quickly?

It helps you gain confidence and build momentum faster.

You'll get better and faster at it, and the confidence you gain from getting good at analysis will give you the confidence to actually pull the trigger when you find the needle in the haystack. 3.

Premium Pricing: New builds usually rent faster and need less maintenance, but they also cost more up front.

I’ve been seeing a lot of momentum from investors using DSCR loans to expand faster than conventional financing allows.Pairing DSCR with bridge loans seems to be helping many keep deals moving without big capital hurdles.Is DSCR part of your scaling strategy this year?

We moved away from our units, so we use a property manager now, but we did it quasi in-house and never charged an application fee.