ADVISE: I made $120,000 in 2017 and was planning to buy a house to decrease taxes.

I cant see why I would want to refinance & decrease my cash flow by refinancing to significantly higher rates. 

May have an opportunity to decrease insurance costs - is that a hard number you've been quoted or estimate?

However these are temporary loans (1 year or less) and you will have to refinance after renovations.

http://www.har.com/content/newsroom/Houston Real Estate Highlights in October Single-family home sales continued their post-Hurricane Harvey rebound as volume rose 7.5 percent year-over-year with 6,381 units sold;Single-family home sales remain 2.8 percent ahead of 2016’s year-to-date volume;Total property sales increased 6.6 percent with 7,614 units sold;Total dollar jumped 10.8 percent to $2.1 billion;The single-family home median price rose 3.9 percent to $226,491, which represents an October high;The single-family home average price increased 2.7 percent to $285,858, also the highest level for an October;Single-family homes months of inventory grew year-over-year to a 3.9-months supply, but is down from a 4.3-months pre-Harvey peak – the result of a surge in consumer demand for housing;Townhome/condominium sales rose 5.8 percent, with the average price down 1.1 percent to $195,393 and the median price down 3.1 percent to $153,000;Leases of single-family homes rose 13.6 percent with the average rent up 2.8 percent to $1,776;Volume of townhome/condominium leases jumped 34.8 percent with average rent up 2.9 percent to $1,533.HAR still encourages anyone who has housing available for temporary occupancy (up to 12 weeks) to please post it on our Harvey Temporary Housing page at www.har.com/temporaryhousing to provide housing to those in need.

@Sergey Pshenichkin It does not sound like she has an ideal situation to be purchasing a rental property...maybe focus on personal debt pay down for a while and continue to work her W2 job until she reaches a higher income.Increase income --> Decrease expenses --> Build credit --> Build savingsThen revisit this possibility.

This calculation also assumes that personal exemption and itemized/standard deduction weren't used to further decrease the income.It appears the gain will be a lot lower resulting in a lower tax. 

Most all of the structures are fairly temporary in nature of construction, so down the road, re-purposing the land would be incredibly easy. 

The basement under this large room was full of water and had a bunch of temporary support posts pushing the floor joists up (physically bowed up).

Lower your numbers and decrease your risk.This might be to low for a bank to invest so maybe look for a  property around $100,000 kicking off $1300 in cash and you will be happy too.