Finance vs cash purchase

[Tarcizio Goncalves]

Hi everyone,

I am lucky enough that if I drive 1.5 hours outside my area, there is a good chance I can purchase a property for cash. I’ve been studying for the past 4 months about real estate investing and am ready to purchase my first buy and hold owner occupied small multi-fam investment property. Two weeks ago I was pre-approved and have been looking at properties (haven’t put in an offer yet). I would like to ask you all a question that I started thinking about just now

Should I purchase my home with a FHA 3.5% down payment or pay it in cash? If I do a cash transaction, I plan on refinancing later to pull my money out and invest on another property. Through my research, I found that refinancing and pulling my money out will get me the best rate, the best price for closing cost, and best tax write off. Can someone please confirm if this is true? What is the waiting period after I buy until the time I can pull out my money? When I refinance, do I only get out 80%, more, or less of what the property is worth Maybe buying cash and refinance is the best way to start to build by portfolio instead of putting 3.5% down (on my primary residence then 25% down for investment property)? Any guidance will be extremely helpful.
Thank you all