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Why tie up that much of your own capital with rates where they are?
If you're buying in the right market... keep your money for other ventures/investment opportunities, finance at 4-4.5%, and hopefully have someone else pay the mortgage on your appreciating asset. A buddy of mine has made boat loads doing this around dfw over the last 4-5 years.
When oil falls on its ass and the rental market os down, I don't want to be left on the hook for a mortgage on a vacant house. I live in a town of about 7000 people. This scenario happened and I know some other landlords who are leveraged like that and they are hurting. We have been able to stay occupied but we also keep our stuff in pretty good shape. I have had a few people come to me with an offer to sell so they can get out from under a payment.
I minored in finance so I fully understand how your ROI can be higher when you use the banker's money to buy assets. In fact it drives my banker crazy that he doesn't own 80% of my portfolio. I own 100% of the revenue after income taxes, property taxes and insurance though. My lowest performing property is netting 18% yearly as it is though.
I have had several people tell me that my capital structure is wrong and that I should be financing everything, but the common factor with everyone telling me this is that this is how they DID it when they USED to do it. Sounds like it is working out for your buddy in Dallas though.