This deal aligned perfectly with my strategy to build equity and cash flow while leveraging hard money financing and refinance opportunities.

I remember being excited to refinance at 5%.  9% was good rate and plenty of loans were 12% or more.

You will owe monthly payments until you fix the property up, rent it out, and refinance to a more traditional 30 year fixed rate product. 

Buy and renovate the property and in 6 months do a simple cash out refinance and pull out some cash and start the REI process all over again.I am North of you up in Pinellas County West of Tampa and there are also some great places up here that might save you some cash. 

Then refinance at 80% and buy a few more and do it again. 

If something breaks even now, what could it look like in that time period with rising rents, possible refinance if/when rates go down (lenders are offering these with no fees!)

That way, you can get your foot in the door, start building equity, and stay at home a bit longer to save more money.You could also consider the BRRRR method where you buy a fixer-upper, rehab it to add value, rent it out, and then refinance to pull your cash back out.

Below are the numbers on the second property I will purchase with the refinance.

I'm unsure if you would be able to combine both loans given that the HELOC is tied to a different property than the one you got traditional financing on.A work around is if you are able to purchase the new property with the HELOC at a significant enough discount, bring the property value up via renovations or additions, then refinance the property, pulling out enough money to repay the HELOC. 

I mean, don't get me wrong, we have to comp the property...so if you are looking to REHAB the property and make it something different, then you need a rehab loan first and then refinance after type of thing.