About to close on my first condo...and a few questions...

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Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know I'm about to close on my first Condo. It's about 10 mins south of downtown chicago. I'm about to close at 157k but the appraisal came back at 165k so I guess that's good.

Recent comps have come back at 180k for similar units (renovated) in the past 4 months, so since I only put 10% down and I'm doing a 80/10/10, I'm planning on refinancing after I make some renovations to capture that last 10% so I can lower my mortgage. Right now its 6.5 on 80% and 10 on 10%.

(1) Does a 6.0 on 80% seem reasonable?

Also, one thing that somewhat concerns me is that I'm trying to find average rental price for the building but I can't seem to find much except this one ad for a studio that shows up everywhere (on all the rental sites). It's the only high rise in the area so you would expect there to be plenty of data.

So I'm wondering...

(2) Does this mean it's good that there are so few rentals available? Meaning most people are homeowners and not investors? How do I check this?

(3) Maybe you are not allowed to rent? (I'm pretty sure this isn't true because I've met people in the building who rent, but maybe they are doing it illegally?)

Also, once this is done, I'm almost already looking forward to my next investment.

(4) Is it true once you start paying mortgage, generally your credit card line of credit increases? Because I will need that to pay for materials for renovations and have started to apply for those 12 month 0% apr cards...

(5) If you get a decent fixed rate 5.9-6.2 for 30 yr fixed, do you still try to slam every nickle into the mortgage or should you be content with being able to cover the mortgage and/or make slightly positive cash flow, and instead of pre-paying the mortgage, save your money for a new investment?

I just don't understand how you can even get financing for a second property if you are still paying mortgage on the 1st.