Refinancing will change your mortgage rate, and if it’s worse than your current rate, it’s not worth it unless you’re getting a great deal.

However, the rental value this area is very low compared to the Home values and mortgage rate.

Instead of paying down someone else’s mortgage, you’re setting yourself up for bigger and better deals down the road.Your first deal is going to depend on a lot of factors—how important is location?

That will most probably be offset by an increase in new mortgage costs and increased rates. 

If you want me to send you my link tree it will show upcoming events at my mortgage brokerage A and N (we host events with multifamily investor groups, and networking events weekly).

Id keep looking if it was not an approved short sale ( even an approved short sale takes a very very long time and theres no guarantee that you will even close on the house after months of waiting). q1)There are plenty of non traditional lenders that could offer you construction financing if the numbers make sense but it will cost you with points and a higher rate.

By investing in metropolitan areas your yield would be lower (6% to 7%) but you would have a lower vacancy rate.

One thing to note when getting conventional mortgages and spouses.There is a 10 limit per person for conventional financing.You can either do 10 conventional in each person's name which would be 20 mortgages for 2 people or if you do the mortgages jointly, will only allow 10 in total.My thoughts are not to own joint assets until you are both married. 

I actually had this account from years ago, before my Realtor days and before my mortgage lending days.

.- Rents will be paying the mortgage off, increasing the owner's equity/wealth.- If you hold a rental until death, you can pass it on with a stepped-up cost basis, limiting captial gains if then sold (limited by inheritance tax limitations).Too many newbies on this site trying to replace their day job income via "passive" real estate investing w/o digging deep enough to understand how it really works.