If you do have enough other income then you dont even need to lease out this property to start your refinance.However if you dont have enough income to qualify with no rental income offset then yes you will need to obtain your lease(s) and security deposit + 1st months rents deposited before you can utilize 75% of this gross income - your monthly PITIA payment (in terms of qualification on this property refinance.So all in all Id make sure what your current debt to income position is first of all (DTI) and then strategize to see if you even need the leases at all.

It's like putting your life into net negative before you are trending enough into financial positive.

Does anyone have experience of setting up a STR while in the same position? 

I like that you pointed out all the positives and negatives for a fair balanced post that will help other investors evaluate future options.I have been posting for a while on how hard the North Alabama market has become, and this post shows a good example of it. 

I think I misunderstand DTI for rental incomes.My DTI goes up with a cashflow positive rental ($2000 expense and $3,500 income).

Quote from @Chris Seveney: @Brian Burke I am also curious what the investor equity position is.

Any feedback positive or negative would be appreciated!

Private Lender Partnership: Partner with a private lender or investor willing to take a second lien position to get you to 85-90% cash out.

I manage it daily to update base pricing and see what the market is doing, but I wholeheartedly recommend if you want to maximize revenue and get to maximum capacity.Mindy @Collin Hays I respect your position and for sure everyone should run their biz according to their own values. 

A $240k loan amount on a $249k purchase price seems crazy and I'd never expect to produce any net positive cash flow doing this.How are you calculating your property taxes?