You can also explore FHA with 3.5% down as well with 1.75% Upfront fee + anything with more than 3-4 units, there will be a SS rule (Self-sufficient test) to pass per FHA guideline.If it is a legal multifamily unit, you can also use those vacant units as your rental income up to 75% of gross market rent.

I would be using hard money lending (I've heard it's around 10% with a 1% origination fee) .  

i guess you could call them, like a newborn, kid college fees something of that nature.I made the mistake of not looking into that before i bought my duplex, because don't forget that with homeownership/landlord comes recurring expenses on that property,and you're life surprise expenses somehow never stop coming lol, so i'd make sure to put money aside for that and not sacrifice it for the sake of profit.

You can write into the agreement that the borrower pays the servicing fee.

But they take fees from you and charge the tenant more.

If that was the case I would let the in-process HELOC go, and shoot for a refi and HELOC at the same time next year to avoid duplicating fees.

I believe most places charge a 3 percent fee or more

One issue I've uncovered in this is that they also add a $75 "admin fee" in addition to the percentage based "supervisory fee."

Never pay upfront origination fees. 

Even with a 25% fee, you're cash flowing better than a long term rental, so the fee should not deter anyone!