As a retired CPA, I have seen more than my share of bankrupted RE investors who were over leveraged with many properties.All the more reason to emphasize developing good due diligence practices, having some skin in the game and staying on top of legal requirements, maintenance, finance and tenant screening criteria.

My focus besides improving my golf game and dance lessons YES I take dance LOL.  

Those loan programs allowed me to get into the real estate game and buy my 1st property in 2017 after separating from the U.S.

It just means landlords and tenants play the game of making the bedroom look not like a bedroom during an inspection.

The loan options vary by state.

After paying closing costs, title fees, appraisal, origination, underwriting, processing, legal and other fees, the typical refinance costs about 1.75 - 2.5% of the loan amount just in closing costs (obviously before people yell at me, this varies drastically by state, but having done loans all over the country I find this to be a pretty accurate estimate).  2) Keeping the average 2% cost in mind and the fact that people typically refinance when rates drop about .75% - 1% or more, I wanted to see if paying an extra point now when I was already paying all the closing costs to buy the rate down made sense. 1 point can get you between .5% - .625% off the rate depending on the days pricing and the coupon you are pricing. 

Almost feel like a roll of the dice and you just gotta pray you don't run into a tenant that can game the system and this case even have more fuel to their fire since they are unpermitted. 

Little late to the game- I invest mostly in Cecil county but own throughout the state.  

I am fine for long term growth and don't mind working for the next 20-30 years to build a sustainable portfolio with no mortages on them as the end game plan.What would you do? 

Fannie Mae's reduction of the down payment requirement for 2-4 units to just 5% for conventional is a game changer and has allowed house hacking to be more attainable.