This will affect any efficiencies of scale you can expect.What is the prevalent Cap Rate for similar buildings in the area?

I've heard that you should never buy a property that you cannot afford to pay the entire mortgage(from your W2 job income) if you were the only person living there.But obviously that must go out the door once you scale and have more properties.

With alternate acquisition funds like an asset-based line based on the deal or something similar, we may be able to scale up to multiple deals simultaneously.Looking for advice on what others have done to increase their acquisition velocity where it isn't dependant on how much equity we have in our portfolio, but based on the deal itself.For example, if 3 deals cross my desk that are solid, I would prefer not to be reliant on whether my HELOC is tapped at the moment the deal crosses my desk. 

I think private or hard money lenders allow you to scale.  

Or, do you want to scale and own a portfolio full of rentals that will cashflow right into your bank account? 

I started as a builder working for investors and developers and scaled from there into development.

Would you buy a primary residence in a hot socal appreciating market with an FHA (no house hack possible with this one) with the hopes of living there 2 years and using the equity built up to buy another place and airbnb/vrbo the property afterwards for cash flow ........................ or invest out of state in a lower barrier to entry market to hopefully find a good brrrr deal and scale more quickly?

I am looking for information on what direction you guys/girls would take if you wanted to scale but not over leverage.

Many investors opt for that route to gain the economies of scale advantage with a single purchase while still acquiring under a residential mortgage.  

@Dmitry Clarke, You're exactly right that you will get better rental cashflow out of state since rent does not scale with purchase price.