Two lenders I have used in the past have told me that you need a credit score of at least 720 due to fannie mae regulations to refinance properties 7-10. 

@Chris Wilburn You wil have MI under FHA loan in 30 year fix loan through out the life of the loan unless you refinance with conventional  loan.

Mostly I have to wait 6 months to refinance. 

You need to be disciplined to pay part of the principal too.Many people use a HELOC to make fast "cash" offers on properties, then refinance the balance from the HELOC into a mortgage on the property.

I expect to refinance in 6 months to a year with increased value.

If there is ways you can add value through cosmetic work AND negotiate a price to but you in a good position with a fair amount of equity to begin with my opinion would be find another partner to front the remaining amount needed to put the down payment on a HML until property seasoned and then refinance into conventional through bank/credit union.

You probably don't need to refinance to get rid of PMI.

It was only on paper but could be converted to cash any time I chose to sell or refinance.

I wouldn’t mind a value add rehab with a minimal budget to cash out refinance.   

I did a FHA loan and then took out a home equity loan, when I had enough equity, to refinance it into a 15 year mortgage.