Balancing primary residence vs investing in rental property

[Dustin Cook]

I am currently in escrow for a SFH for my primary residence in Los Angeles. My wife and I took out a cash out refi on her out of state rental property to use for a downpayment on this house. If we were to do a 20% down conventional loan, after improvements we will use up most of this refi money. I have been researching out of state turn key rentals and they seem like a good investment and if this property falls through the cracks I think we will use this money to invest in them rather than buy for ourselves in LA.

The question I have though is, would it be worth taking on PMI to instead put 10% down in order to have money left over in out of state turn key rental properties? Would I be able to cash flow enough money to off set the cost of the PMI?

[Max T.]

Also, if you're looking at an FHA mortgage for the primary and you put down less than 20%, the PMI will stay with you for the life of the loan.

You used to be able to just pay your mortgage down to 20% equity and then call it off, but now you have to refinance to get out of it.