re: Rental property question

yes, get leveraged to the max! Unless you are one of those dave ramsey types. Money is so cheap right now. My HELOC is interest only, and variable rate, so it just went down from 5 to 4.75%, should go down another .25%, seems like theres a month delay when feds cut rates to lenders. the interest only payment on 80k is about $350. its tax deductible if its for business purposes. You should have access to your equity even if you don't want to invest it. You can have it just in case, for worst case scenario, keep you afloat for 3-6 months.

If you have 100k heloc out on 5, 100k properties, and 400k in loans(20% down/equity, which is less leveraged than most americans), debt service is about 2500-3k a month depending on terms. Your income is 5k, so you clear 30k a year after debt service, and a lot of debt service will go to principle.

Yea, you will have other expenses, but you just took 100k (money you already have, and are doing nothing with), to add 30k to your income. with that 30k you can add a new house every 10 months. in a few years, you could be buying a new house every 3 months.