@Brandon Croucier is giving you solid info on finding an experienced and honest mortgage broker who can shop your exact scenario both ways, with the rehab and without and break down the benefits of each with all fees so you can see an apples to apples comparison. 

My duplex - built 1989, 2,060 sf, 2 bed/bath, 1 year old roof, value if I subdivide (county already approved) and sell each separately $150k each ($300k total)Investor duplex - built 1995, 2,300 sf, 2 bed/bath, 5 year old roof, value around $310kThe investors initial request was for an equal trade and they would pay realtor fees, which I replied wouldn't be equal due to buying/selling costs (recording fees, title insurance, closing fee, survey, inspections, loan fees, 1031 fees, accountant fees, repairs), taxes would increase due to new sale price, I'd trade a 3.75% mortgage for a higher one, and I'm on the 10th year of a 30 year loan so resetting that to a new loan would restart amortization and pay more towards interest.

In fact, a couple of recent studies have shown that working with a broker typically saves about $10,000 on a residential mortgage.

My name is still the only name on the mortgage and title.

Hi @Shayan Sameer, I'm an investor and licensed mortgage broker.

Meet with a local banker & schedule a time to talk with a mortgage broker, they'll give you at least a baseline of what kind of down payment options and rates are out there.After that, if you're still wanting to research more creative options, do some looking into seller financing (a very hot topic with good, and bad, advice out there), look into private lenders, and commercial financing options.If you're wanting to live in 1/4 of your quadplex, then conventional residential loans may in fact be your best option as you can purchase that with a fannie/freddy loan with very low down, and use up to 75% of the income from the property toward your own income. 

If you have bank loan (not an agency loan) or no mortgage at all, an LLC is certainly an option.

Take into account your mortgage, a property management company and other expenses and you are lucky if you net $300. 

I'm not sure I can copy and paste my Excel spreadsheet, so i will approximate the numbers here.Strategy:Take a Home Equity Loan (second) on our primary @ 5%.Pay off existing HELOC (variable, at 7.5% now), use remainder ($120k) to buy the land (plus 30k of our own cash).

This is not “student housing” in the traditional sense - even the vacancy risk doesn’t exist as it’s a 12 month lease / they work over the summer there, etc.