Disagreement Between Husband and Wife on Loan Length

[Brooks Rembert]

My wife and I are under contract to purchase our first "on purpose" rental property. We have a rental property in Northern Virginia, but that was due to a transfer and we chose not to sell in 2010 when things were still a little rocky in the market.

Fast forward to today and we're ready to fire up an honest to goodness real estate business, but we're running into a bit of a disagreement on whether we should go with a 15 or 30 mortgage.

I'm all for the cash flow and using extra money to pay down principle more quickly, yet have a buffer when things arise. She simply wants to get it paid off more quickly, which I totally get also.

We are getting a good price, so the positive cash flow will either be approximately $500 vs. $300 per month.

Maybe the compromise is to go with a 20 year...I'm not sure. Has anyone had this discussion with their spouse/partner and what was the solution?