However, I feel that paying off the mortgage is a safer route for me.

Bankers move around, rates increase and decrease, market conditions change, but these personal relationships can remain a constant throughout your career and will be critical to your success. 

Paul the owner basically handles everything so there is definitely a personal connection. 

My only issue is the owner doesnt want to share pictures of the inside of the home due to their own personal feelings about how the house " looks" wants to sell as is inlcuding leaving everything in the house.

Hi all, my husband and I are trying to keep investing in Santa Barbara (which is kind of funny, considering it feels impossible) after having purchased a condo in 2020 and a single family home that became our primary residence in 2021.

Moving from a 3 handle rate to an almost 8% DSCR feels like defeat.

We had to request correction of multiple other items that we did not feel were finished with sufficient attention to detail.

If you asked the average person outside of New York State where Upstate NY is, the most common answer would be "north of NYC."

Most folks feel comfortable with any hold over a year. 

look at your experience level with reality in mind.I would want to feel very comfortable about those things before spending time on deals and money when i had no real capacity to transact no matter who the lender was.