The tenant who occupies the property pays the rent.

Fully occupied, the property grosses $5,570/month with $4690 net profit after expenses.

The lender required that the property be tenant occupied/cash flowing.

I feel confident we will have it occupied and possibly at a higher return than anticipated at closing.  

If you're occupying the vacant unit, what makes you think you can evict either tenant from additional units?

Interest is 18%.for a total of 30.5k in debt.current financial status:1k emergency fund.1k in reserves outside of that.6 month plan:I'm going to japan in march with my sister so i'm currently reserving my money to do cool things in japan as it was my personal incentive to get my *** into gear and get my life together.after that trip i'm planning to tackle my debt in order of highest interest rate to lowest interest rate.I believe i can comfortable put 2500 a month into my finances. so i expect to be able to be debt free roughly a year from march.After that: im planning on parking my money into the smp 500 to help it grow until i have enough money for a downpayment on a duplex to a quadplex and doing the houshacking strategy yall talk about.

Whether a cashout refi or purchase, though, youre going to have to go through the same underwrite as this is an owner occupied residence. 

The way the guidelines are written is that you have to intend to occupy the property as your primary residence when obtaining the loan, and this is generally demonstrated when you live in the property for at least one year.

The down payment on owner occupied properties can be as little as 3% on owner occupied properties.

This is an essential tool for anyone buying a tenant-occupied property.