Starting the refinance process

[Bily Elliott]

Well, hopefully I can refinance my current rental property anyway. To make a long story short, I paid cash for a cheap forclosure (20K) in 2009, put a few thousand into renovations and then placed a tenant at $500/month and he has been there ever since (I would say it has been a heck of an investment so far!). I got married shortly after that, got divorced within a few months (that is a story of its own!), spent too much money, filed bankruptcy, and had a different home foreclosed on. My bankruptcy was discharged in 2011, the lender FINALLY took posession of the house in March of 2013 (so just over two years now), and I have really made a HUGE change in the way I handle money now. I am re-married, we paid cash for our current home, my credit score is way up, I am making good money, bills are very low and my DTI is very high. I have contacted 3 local banks and credit unions to see what they can do for me. I would love to get some money out of the rent house to start doing some BRRRR. I have two big things going against me, first, the house is probably only worth around 40K, so it will be a small loan that they may not want to mess with and second, my bankruptcy/foreclosure is still not too far off (2 years I have read and heard is the minimum to start to get some financing again). I am wondering if anyone else has tried to get some equity out of a small home shortly after a bankruptcy/foreclosure and how it went for them.