2) If you do owner-occupied cashout refi for best rate, you technically have to live in the home for 12 months before renting it out. * Some responders here may suggest not worrying about that and renting it out anyways.

I've now used it twice.The program requires 10% down, must be a rental, no PMI, and has a very high standard of credit.Last I did it (Summer 2022), my rate landed in the low 5%.  

Being that rates are up it's another way to offer exatly what you mentioned; the chance to own for a couple hundred bucks more than renting.Thoughts?

Thought about refinancing at the time, but didn't do it before rates exploded.

Some people only want 10-20% of their outstanding lines/debt balances available while the other 80-90% to be in fixed rate notes.

I think about this often, its really just running the numbers - if you borrow 100k at an 8% interest rate, will the investment get you more than an 8% return?

Currently we would be at 8.5% interest rate.  

I am a resident physician in dermatology, during  medical school I bought a property in Denver with an Interest rate of 2.75% (COVID rates lol) with the goals of renting it out when I moved onto the residency.

I will say that during that time, the HELOC interest rates were very low.  

The interest rate isn't that huge of a difference between the 15 and 30 so worst case scenario if you have the 30 year option is you start paying it down on a 15 year timeline - sure you'll pay a little more in interest over the 15 years, but it will have been worth it if you bought another house.