Every loan and bank will have its associated fees and cost as its the price to do business but if you see more leverage in tapping into existing equity that could very well be the case.

Again, if your $250k is true, and includes all the electrical upgrades, new plumbing runs, potentially new foundation pour (since I assume the existing garage slab is not capable of supporting a new two story house), I am guessing since I don't know the market, but assume you will have a lot of equity by completing the project.

Don't want to pay tax on selling the rentals I unfortunately don't think they actually want to utilize the 121 to sell their existing primary and then potentially buy another one-it sounds like the goal is to ultimately continue owing that initial home which I think makes this whole plan 5x more likely to be torn apart under audit because they're trying to end up with the same property they started with.  

Assumable MortgagesAn assumable mortgage allows you to take over the seller’s existing loan — including its lower mortgage rate.

From what I've seen and read, most of the reason operators get in trouble is that there is some type of "event" that has occurred (usually their loan has matured or they've defaulted on their existing loan) and they need to refinance their loan and the lenders require a new appraisal to be done, which usually leads to a lower appraised value, and a lower loan amount, which "forces" the owner to pay down their debt.

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs: Quote from @Brie Schmidt: @Jay Hinrichs - agree but the problems still exist for us:We can't do 1031 exchanges anymore because the process will now take 4-6 monthsWe can't do owner occupied loans because we have to keep tenants for 6 months after the sale even if their lease expiresA distressed seller now needs to pay $60,000 or more if they sell to a developerThe Dept of Housing has to review and approve all the proof of compliance before we can closeBuyers wont spend thousands of dollars on DD till they know the deal is going forward which can be 30-90 days WOW is all I can say.. 

House hacking can be very rewarding, but at the same time - do your research on surrounding markets - maybe in the Oldsmar/Westchase area you may find something better out in those areas. 

Leads Management - filter, tag, and create tasks for each lead to arrange them better in your system; for example...there might be 25% probate leads that have the wrong data or new data exist somewhere (the right contact people, a newly assigned executor to the case, etc.).

If your goal is to ASSUME an existing loan with the VA you go through the underwriting process.

Instead of buying existing properties and rehabbing them, the idea is to partner with a builder who constructs new rental properties, then refinance and rent them out.