I was initially wanting to receive a conventional loan and pay a downpayment in cash from savings and buy and hold properties. 

However after crunching some quick numbers, I’m trying to understand the benefit of a cash out refi vs just getting a conventional mortgage.

Conventional home loans are the closest thing to free money as there is. 

Others will let you put conventional mortgages on 10 properties.There are also banks that lend on 20-30 year terms as portfolio loans which means they don’t sell them to Fannie or Freddy and therefore there is no limit to how many you can get.Another Avenue is commercial lending.

We just purchased a 3rd SFH using conventional Fannie Mae financing with 5% down.

I financed this deal with a 5% down conventional loan.

I financed this deal with a 5% down conventional loan.

And should I just get a conventional loan?

I am confused on if this financing is amortized like a conventional loan, or do you make it interest-only with a balloon? 

Ok, here’s what I’m trying to figure out.As a first time real estate investor, I understand what’s available in term of funding the purchase, for the most part.If we go the hard money/ private lender route, we’ll need to refi after the 1-year balloon, which is what I’ve been told are the terms from the lenders.If I’m doing short term rentals, my conventional lender is telling me I need to wait 2 years to be able to use the income.Any ideas out there on how to refi at the 1-year mark for the balloon payment if you can’t use the income yet?