Help on acquiring first deal

[Brett Wagner]

Hi all.  I would like some help on what you would do if you were in my situation.  So here goes:

looking to find first SF or MF deal.

primary home has a 2.65% rate and approximately 7-8 years left to pay on it.  Worth approximately $110k.

The monthly payment is maxing us out but working a 2nd job to save up $$ for the rental property, but that's going to take approximately 1-2 years before i can save up enough for down payment + rehab costs.  

Family of 6, so house hacking in a duplex, etc., is not really an option.  

Thinking about refinancing to get a lower payment, or cash out refi or Home equity loan which would free up more cash to speed up the process and use that money for a down payment.  To make it a little more complicated, in the next 3-4 years, we'd like to move to Central America for mission work.  The plan is to only go for about 1 year.

My thought is that I would like to have about 3 houses rented when we move to Central America, but some say refinancing out of such a low interest mortgage is not a good option... but that's why I'm posting to get your thoughts.