I believe the brrrr strategy will cause a lot of people to go bankrupt and if you remain debt free, you'll be in line at the courthouse to purchase :) I can get a loan without refinancing my current properties and you can too.

The only reason why that investor was selling is that she had her eyes on another long term property that came on the market and she didn't want to do a cash out refinancing. 

I have since refinanced my properties into a commercial portfolio loan and the issue isn't as relevant.

How does refinancing with VA loan works?

Or should I be refinancing somehow using the condo I own?

Contact local community banks in addition to the credit unions to find a lender to do the Refinancing.  

So we are considering refinancing the house for 128k into a conventional loan which would do three things: drop our interest rate, pay off our debt and get rid of PMI.

Have you considered refinancing the loan not on forgiveness plan?  

Does the home being a rental influence refinancing?

I've thought about possibly putting it into my name and refinancing and then renting, however I am a fulltime nanny with a weekend job as well.