The representative confirmed that there is a 27k surplus that the sheriff's office will hold on to until the owner  or heirs claim it. 

How does you monthly surplus look with the mortgage payment on the new house?

However, if I was to make a $10,000.00 annual principal payment( that I will be saving from the $1,590 surplus) I could have this free and clear in 7.5 years. 

Any surplus then, I reasoned was simply a bonus.  

An HOA with a proper lien is entitled to surplus in Florida.  

The rental income from the 3 units alone completely covers the cost of the mortgage so if we were to rent out the unit we reside in, I estimate we'd have a surplus of $1400 a month accounting for an avg. of $500 put aside for monthly maintenance expenses.  

Mike and Irene M Government grantsReal estate investingAuctions of surplus machinesTax lien investingEach of which portrayed their vast wealth as a example of their success in whatever their pitch was at the particular seminar.

Between my roommate and my tenants, the entirety of the mortgage is paid, and I have a small cash surplus each month after minor expenses, so the entirety of my earned income can go straight into reserves for the purchase of my next property.What matters much more to me, as far as my house-hacking business is concerned, is my cash cushion, which you lightly touch on.  

I'm not worried about my ability to make enough money to pay my mortgage- there is NO shortage of jobs in my field, and if I can fill one of the other two units that will just about cover the mortgage by itself, if I can fill both units I will already have + cash flow (the surplus goes into a savings account or back onto the principle of the loan.)

I would use the surplus cash from the refinance to pay down other debt or to fund another deal, as capital at a low interest rate with 30 year terms is hard to come by in any other way, and sometimes the opposite happens, my LTV is lower than my costs.