Refi from Primary Res Loan to Investment Loan

[Murphy Frankhouser]

I purchased a duplex as my primary residence in March 2020. I did a cash out refinance with the same bank still as my personal residence. Did I do the right thing? Should I have done the cash out refinance as an investment loan at 75% LTV (depending on the bank) and left some cash in the deal to allow me to go buy another primary home for 5%-15% down?

My thinking is that I could have gotten around the "having only one primary mortgage" rule by moving the loan into an investment loan thus allowing me to go and get another primary loan in less than 12 months. Or, am I mistaken, and the rule is that you cannot apply for more than one primary residence loan in any 12 month period regardless of if it has been "paid off" and a different loan placed against the property?

The details of what I actually did are below. I'm hoping to do something like this again and would love any input you all have for me.

• Purchase Price:$200,000
• Loan Amount: $200,000
• Loan Terms: 0% down, 5/5 ARM, 30 year term, and no PMI.
• Original payment: $1,332 PITI.
• Rehab Cost:$40,000. 

I did a cash out refi still as my Primary Residence 

• Appraised Value: $295,000
• New Loan Amount: $243,000
• New LTV: 82.4%
• Loan Terms: 15/15 ARM, 30 year term, and no PMI.
• New Payment: $1,373 PITI.
• Cash Pulled Out:$40,800.

I had a tenant in one unit from purchase date (March 10th) to June then another tenant from July through refi date (October 5th) on an 18month lease and a roommate paying rent the entire time on a 16 month lease. 

[Benjamin Seibert]

It all depends on your goals. I personally refinance all my properties into a fixed rate mortgage and try to stay away from ARM loans. I liked the stability of a 75% LTV 30 yr fixed rate mortgage. Easy to predict future cash flows and leaves some equity in the deal.

@Alex Bekeza is a great lender who offers these products.