When you hold on to a cash flow neutral property, your betting on appreciation.

This is what is holding me back from buying it as a rental, because my PML payment would be 600/month+ on a 100k note, adding in insurance and taxes, it would be cash neutral at best, more likely to have negative cash flow.  

I did and they came and determined it was an open neutral and got to work to fix it.

A neutral PH cleanser is best but hard to find on the shelf.

Assuming the rentals are ballpark cashflow neutral, your DTI will come down to approximately:1) Your personal "day job" income.

You would need this property to rent for $2,000 a month to be considered a "neutral" investment.Do yourself a favor and read this: How To Calculate Cash Flow

As for investing here, there are still cashflow positive/neutral/slightly negative options here if you look out towards the valley.

If we had investing as the primary focus we probably could have found a property more suited to cash flowing or being closer to neutral at least.I'd say you should network locally with people doing similar investing and get referrals that way.

For my second property I have been looking at nicer, newer side by side duplexes that are basically cash flow neutral using the same parameters. 

Make sure that after the refinance, it will at least be cash flow neutral with the rent you are going to charge.