I am working on arranging financing for both + a refi on one of my existing properties.Would love to hear if you think there is a connection that might be able to help.Thanks a lot in advance.

Which, at this stage is negligible but I hope to buy at least a handful of properties over the next 5 years.

This is critical especially in your early stages of your investment career. 

Many commercial lenders will allow/support such an arrangement ... just ask up-front.

the loan was arranged by the company that I bought the house from.

@Moses Kagan I completely agree that for me I can not include appreciation into the mix at this stage.  

I was recently told by many people that a great way to learn about real estate investing in the early stages would be to buy a home myself, to understand the ins and outs of home buying and ownership.

Most of this will be discussed and arranged with the property owners in advance. 

We are hoping he can quit his day job soon.We are in the early stages of starting a second business, Real Estate Investment, together. 

Not me.So, it's eventually going to get to a stage of fewer quality posts, from those who can watch the posting and weed out those known to give bad information.......maybe that is the purpose, I don't know, maybe it's all about traffic count or clicks.