I recently began to look into buy and hold/ rental income as a ticket to FI.  

I hope this inspires 1 person to start looking somewhere other than their own backyard and start your journey to FI because that is why my wife and I are doing this. 

been in primary owner/occupy home 20+ yrs,,,     last time I re-financed,,,  got horrible rate,,,  thinking of re fi  (30yrs)   to get payment down,,,  and my semi short term plan is to find another,,,   live in property,,  and then rent current home,,,     just having some doubts about re finance,,,     but I guess there is smart debt ,,,  to be considered,,  thoughts ?? 

you'll still be out of pocket for the 20-25% down payment but that way the purchase and rehab are funded and then you can re-fi after rehab with commercial loan at the higher value.Alternatively how about asking the seller or his family for a low/no interest seller finance deal, or maybe 10% down and interest only payments so you can get it rehabbed and re-fi'd.

Generally you will recalculate the new cap rate given the new numbers for the re-fi.

It’s rated F .. every time I ever got an “ F “ I had big problems .

We plan on starting our journey as a Financially Independent Retire Early (F-I-R-E) in 5 years when my husband turns 55.

It's my understanding that notice for repairs/maintenance/re-fi appraisals, etc., is different than notice for re-renting or selling, and forcing a tenant to allow access for showings for a sale may cause more headaches for you than just waiting until lease ends to sell.   

I'm sure you will reach FI by 30 if you start off right and be smart with your investment decisions.

@Justin Kistler Hi Justin welcome to BP and best of luck on your RE and FI journey!