Next Steps after First Duplex

[James Smith]

Hey everyone! A little background. My name's James and my wife, dog and I are currently househacking a duplex in Manheim, PA on an fha loan. 1st floor is 2bd 1 ba for $825 to a family that came on a month to month lease, they've been there about 4 years on the same lease. We pay water/sewer(not submetered), trash/recycling and gas heat. 2nd floor is a 2bd 1.5ba that was renting for $995 before we moved in. Current payment is $1300. Spent the next two years trying to learn as much as possible while saving as well. Hoping to have around 40k by the end of the year so long as nothing extremely significant surprises me. Just like everyone, I kept getting emails from my mortgage company about refinancing and inquired to see what it would take to switch to a conventional and out of fha. Mostly to remove PMI and keep fha as an option again moving forward. My wife and I both have remote jobs/could relocate and no kids makes it easy for us to move without much hassle. First loan was for 158k @4.625 and new offer, assuming appraisal of 220(duplex next to me sold for 220k 1.5 years ago guessing that's what she's going off of) comes at 3.625 with about $375 needed to close lowering my payment by about $200, or I could just pay closing costs outright, lowering my payment more.

I guess what I'm wondering is what does refinancing do to my ability to get a mortgage for a second property, is about 6 months the usual waiting period? Should I shop around my updated credit profile/offer? Does having a higher valued property effect my D/I ratio when looking for a second property? Or is it "offset" by verified rental income? 

Additionally, I'm considering a career switch to something more hands on to directly benefit our real estate goals. How do traditional lenders view recent changes in employment? Let's assume I made identical pay

Thanks in advance for any comments or advice! 

James, Kelsey, Dexter