I think this is a calculation a lot of homeowners are making right now--especially if they have a low interest mortgage, equity, and their house will cashflow as a rental.The choice is a personal one of course, but I think your future self will thank you if you pull out some equity from your existing home with a HELOC for the downpayment on the next house and a cushion renting your current home, use a property manager as you have other things to do, and buy the next house and do the same thing again.

I was also getting credit card balance transfer offers at 0% promotional rates for a year to a year and a half and I started transferring my HELOC balances to the promotional credit cards.

These are great questions and a great idea to do some due diligence before the purchase.

My husband and I did about a year and a half of college before moving up to KS.

I guess be happy it’s only a couple months and a cheap lesson learned?

Although most of my stays are <7 days, I've had a few longer stays (business travelers and a family that was going through a full home remodel).

The advantage with the bank was minimal closing costs, a good interest rate, and a draw system so I could get funding as I completed each rental unit. 

The two existing units can rent for about $2,500 each, and a garage conversion single unit will rent for about $2,800.

For this reason, it would be prudent to not overleverage yourself in this type of environment in order to wait and see where rates do end up falling, as there is consensus in the market we are moving into a falling rate environment, the exact timing of when rates will be falling is unknown and different scenario analysis should be added to underwriting refinance periods to be sure the project is sustainable if inflation resurges and a refinance is delayed.

So far I’ve gotten mostly local businesses and a few colleagues that are following me.