After 2 years you can apply for a “Rent consideration” (I think that’s what they called it) as long as you still live there and that may allow you to increase rents by more than the annual allowance (probably designed for unit that are very low rents).

Contractors will make or break your rehab. 2. get 3 quotes for everything. 3. closing costs for refinancing is not cheap and you definitely need to take that into consideration when running your numbers. 

., with the rapid rise of STRs, you will find that many insurers offer STR policies.We use Proper but it is very expensive but very comprehensive.

It's definitely tricky because you want to be considerate and you are also running a business.

You've given me some solid pointers/items to take into consideration for future deal analysis, so thank you for that.

It's crucial to evaluate how the deal performs with the new mortgage:Updated Financials After Refinancing: Market Value: $250,000 Mortgage Amount (80% LTV): $200,000 Equity: $50,000 Interest Rate: 5% (30-Year Amortization) Assuming after 12months the rate will drop from 6% to 5%Monthly Expenses: Mortgage Payment: $1,074 Property Tax: $260 (4% Adjustment from last year) Utilities: $309 (+3% Adjustment) Insurance: $104 (+4% Adjustment) Vacancy: $105 Repairs & Maintenance: $105 (now after 12 months we can assume we have repairs at 5% factor on annual rent) Total Monthly Expenses: $1,957Rent Income after 12 months assuming annual rent increase at 5% : $2,100Cash Flow: $143 per month 😊Year 2 Return on investment $2,951 Principal Paydown year 2 $20,000 Property Appreciation (assuming 8% per year) $1,720 Yearly Cash Flow (this will increase as rents rise) $50,000 Initial Equity Total Gain $74,671 with just $ $22,789 remaining in the deal. 

There are some legal considerations as well as practical considerations 1.  

Down the line you should be ok with proper pricing and rising rent over time.

So, in your considerations, I would park right there for a bit and determine how this would look for you.Since you have about 2.5 years to think about it before you would need to spring into action to take advantage of the rollover for tax advantages, maybe you try on a rental and see how it fits. 

I'm a GC as well and did the math, the Heloc would save considerable interest because it would average on 33% of the balance borrowed at any one time (and thats assuming constant deal flow).