This certainly may have legs, especially if you can pull all of your money out at refi.

I'll also need to be a lot more creative with designing the floor plan.I know a lot of the specific details will depend on my local market (Des Moines, Iowa btw) but has anyone had to make this kind of decision before?

4 unit apartment in a small Iowa city.

If you owned rentals in Iowa and rentals in Puerto Rico, I may consider them separate income streams because the markets are different but even that is pushing it.The reason you have different income streams is because they can feed off each other and when one is down the others (hopefully) are up.

Hi BP. i am a first time investor from the bay area. if you guy know anything about the bay area, investing in real estate that would cash flow is almost impossible. it would cost you probably 3 arms and 4 legs just for the down payment alone.

Even the flights were changed so we had three legs to get there.

When it comes to financing folks here may be able to suggest how to get that 380K increased.My perspective: There are places in Providence where 380K will get you solid duplex, but it is in B/C rated neighborhoods (think towards Providence College or East Providence) and people are asking 2 arms and 2 legs for poorly maintained properties.

@Dolly La Salle, this could have some legs.

@Zack Eastwood, you already have a leg up over others since you are a single-family home investor.

I see you're located in Iowa, are you investing in your area or how far are you going out?