What plan sounds better?

[Angela Zanti]

Hi everyone. To start REI my "plan" has always been to start with the house I live in. The house is titled in me and my dads name but the mortgage is in my dads name only. I have been paying the mortgage for 17yrs now. I only owe 35,000 and it will be paid off. Originally I was going to cash out refinance to take my dad off and it be me only on the mortgage. This house needs a good amount of updating so after I cash out I would do a lot of repairs and live here another year then refinance again and start to BRRRR. I really want to keep this house as a rental. What I don't like about this idea is the mortgage would go up and I really don't want to wait any longer to get a rental.

The second possibility is me moving and renting this house “as is”. I was told that because I haven’t had a mortgage in my name in 17yrs I could get the first time home buyers program (10,000) again. I also found out the neighborhood that I would want to move in is a “focus area” and I could get a additional 10,000 for moving their. I would get a under valued house to live in remodel and repeat in a year. I know getting the credits I’m committed to the house for 5yrs but I wonder if I refinanced, kept it and bought another house after a year would that be okay? I also need to find out how do I make sure that the rental income for the house my dad has a loan on won’t count as my dads income and the income count against me? I talked to a real estate attorney and he won’t do a subject to mortgage agreement so is it ok to write it up and have it notarized myself?

Does my second possibility sound like a good idea or should I just stick to the first plan??? I would really prefer that second possibility because I love the neighborhood and schools are better. I also want to add that I have someone I trust wanting to rent the house I live in now with a 250/month cash flow.