I received a piece of marketing from Third Federal Savings & Loan (www.thirdfederal.com), offering to refi our primary residence to a 10 yr fixed at 3.29%/3.39%apr with closing costs at "only $595".Given I'm currently paying 4.375%, on the surface, it looks like I could shave 6-8 months of my current note with a slightly lower payment (~$20 less), it would seem worth it to do this for the $595 expense.

A large amount of investors are getting private (non-bank funding) where they need to provide these estimates and once they are working the property, may need breakdowns periodically of work done, materials, and labor to submit to their lender(s). Have

Other than that, you might be able to shave off a little here and there with another lender, but most of the charges are not profit to the lender anyway. 

Duct tape, spray foam, and endless tubes of caulk make up the material list used by repairmen and property managers from years past.

I encapsulated the crawl space with foam board insulation and vapor barrier and installed a crawl space dehumidifier and a lot of lights. 

My experience is that every time I try to shave a penny here and a penny there, the results show up in the work.

I put a 1.5" gel foam topper and a Serta waterproof padded cover over the whole thing.

Do your own property management and shave off those $353 you have especially if this is your first rental.

Bottom line, STR's (Thank you everyone for NOT calling them "AirBNB/s") have outpaced hotels/motels/resorts, because it's a more practical fit for the tenant/vacationer demand.

We shaved off $4k or so in labor, fence material, side entrance material, different flooring at lumber liquidators, different granite via actual granite place vs. the quoted menards source, and other small savings by making small changes.