Also, in order to cover all my basis, I would provide a second notice to vacate within a week of the end of July.

A lot of investors I speak to on a daily basis say they're waiting for some sort of correction or the election.

We've learned a ton over the past 3 years since this thread first started.. and more every day.   

It can increase your basis in the property which affects capital gains, but given you bought another primary with the funds I don't think that applies. 

How accurate is Zillow and what is the basis for them to determine the house price.

As in, rent the room out to househack not create a divided space.The re-sell value for SFR over MFH(2-4 units) will more than likely be superior in forms of an absolute value and percent basis in really HCOL areas. 

The idea would be instead of making consistently higher payments on a monthly basis, you save all of that then make a large lump sum payment (say 30-50k each time) and also recast the mortgage at that time, lowering the monthly payment.

I assume since I have plenty of basis, I would pay no tax as I'm not overdrawing my basis.

My point is nobody is taking a $12k case to trial on a contingency basis and nobody is going to take a $12k case hourly unless they are not busy.

Are you able to save a decent amount on a monthly basis?