True,I understand, your portfolio is too big and number of homes exceeding the Fannie Mae limit. You are like ptiemann or elt1 level.
You belong to higher level which is not common.
Even though portfolio loan, lender can sell those loans to any secondary providers ,later , including Fannie Mae.
Most of the common mortgages are less than 4 homes and are majority funded by Fannie Mae so far.
Sure you know his level? I think his total of RE holdings is less than mine! 
back to the game of comparing whose nuclear button is bigger? 
Guys love to compare, compete and cooperate 
I guess yours are full cash by now, and may excced his level too, but his homes are portfolio funded.
Normally, portfolio funding is required when number of mortgages are exceeding 4 or 5, they combine it into one single or few mortgages. Some rate hikes and/or upfront points are also added to it.
So, bunch of liberals berating the banks selling their loans. 
No bank can afford to “loan” money that way. They are servicing them, they get their % for the transaction and that is it. If you want to know, just ask all the clients of any given bank to take their money out in one day. They won’t have enough $ in their vaults.
Anything and everything nowadays is a transaction online, it’s all numbers, nothing “tangible” you can grab.
There’s a way to make the banks give you your property free and clear, but that’s for another episode of “nah, you are lying”, and personal attacks calling me a fraud.
1,2, and …
Portfolio funding is the way to go. If you are not doing that, it means you are not taking full advantage of leveraging, and will fall even more behind in terms of asset accumulation to people like me, who are taking full advantage of the situation 
It depends, people like hanera may not like mortgages, but would rather go cash.
People like me wants to play safe with low cost/rate fixed mortgages than going higher.
I do agree we may not be using fullest advantage, but I am ok not to have neck deep mortgages.
Understood. Do realize that there’s no free lunch in this world. If you want exceptional achievements then you’ll need to go the extra mile. “Play safe” means you are leaving money on the table by reducing risk exposure. You are already not using margin in stocks, so not willing to go the extra mile with real estate borrowing is like a double whammy.
Portfolio loans are usually 5-7 year ARMs. Is the index and margin similar to conventional ARMs? As long as rent growth is faster than mortgage rate increase, it should be fine for mid to long term hold.
For short term flipping, you may still need to use cash.
Not everyone is the same. The question rather to ask is how much wealth do you need to be content / happy. Then figure out a plan that gets you there. I saw my entire paper fortune evaporate after the dot com bubble, and again after the housing bubble. So this time around I am taking money off the table and playing it more conservative so that that when the tide flows out as it always does, I am not left swimming naked. Plus I happy with where I am 
You must have been a hard core gambler. Personally I would never go all in with anything.
Using portfolio loans and margin in stocks doesn’t mean your fortune will evaporate in the event of a crash. You have to make calculated risks, say at 50% rate of borrowing. If you are at 0% then you are way too conservative and you will not go far. However if you go 100% then you risk “swimming naked” like what happened to you before.
Actually ignorance and not knowing how to manage it. I let it all ride as I was too busy working and didn’t think of preserving what my work had got me.
That doesn’t make much sense. If you just let it ride then you really haven’t lost anything because both real estate and the stock market eventually bounced back and reached new highs. So your paper fortune really should not have evaporated and in fact should have attained new highs.
True, I had seen , not in paper but in person before my eyes, many cases how margin and other risky loans drastically affected during dot.com and real estate downturn.
Better safety than a sorrow later.
Then, we are not in race, to be aggressive, but just maintain our life, work and investment balance.
Second, we are happy where we are, that is ultimate satisfaction.
There is no one size fits all.
OK members of gambler’s anonymous association…
The gambling didn’t go that good today, did it?
Dow is down. But it’s mostly dominated by old industries. Nasdaq made new high.
My portfolio is at ATH today. Took a month to climb out. 
Another 200% gain year?
Don’t jinx it! 