Pay off or refinance?

[Derrick W.]

I bought a house and did a ton of work on it.   According to my realtor  I have around 30k in equity.  I buy and hold so selling isn't really an option. 

Do I 

A: pay it off and up my buying power through increased cash flow. 

B: refinance and up my buying power through leverage. 

Leverage is faster and pay off is safer. This is in a c- area so I'm afraid that leverage would require a rent rate that would leave little to no cash flow. 

[Alexander Felice]

paying off a house isn't safer, that's a fallacy.

refi! If you want safety, keep bigger cash reserves, but paying a house off gets you non-liquid equity which isn't safety from anything. Also, trading cash to pay off a house just to increase cash is going in circles. (Obviously don't refi into negative cash flow. )

option B every time.

[Account Closed]

I am in a similar situation. 

Original Mortgage: 90K 30yr fixed

Current Appraised value: 160K (25 years left on mortgage)

Mortgage Ballance: 60K

What do you think about refinancing? go for 90k and cash out (keeping payments about the same)?

[Cory S.]

You don't want to lose out on your mortgage interest tax deduction. 

[Derrick W.]

the idea of having cash flow that is equal to or greater than my w2 income is tempting.  That is one of the major reasons I want to get a few houses paid off. 

[Harjeet Bhatti]

Refinance would be good option. Investor always need cash in their hand.