So placing a boyfriend and girlfriend in one room legally reduces the number of other tenants you can have.

Do your due diligence and you reduce the chances of being ripped off. 

If the Seller does not have liability for the bill I would contact the utility provider and explain your the new owner and see if they will waive or reduce the amt the bill.

@Brent Barnes I bought my first property when I was working +70 hours a week in a super stressful job.

As some of the other posters mentioned, you can do creative things to reduce “your” overall down payment or to get cash back.

Although they are located in the same neighborhood, he made no adjustments due to the age of those homes.We have sent those listings to the lender and the appraiser to reassess.Also approached the seller but they don’t want to reduce the price at all.

Having a lender on board before you start shopping will definitely help your stress levels. 

I do have property management in place, so could self manage if thing went awry to reduce my monthly expenses.

HH income is about $130k excluding bonuses and we have no other debt.I'm having trouble determining which scenario is the best approach given the details.Scenario 1: Refinance the $88k to 30 year, no cash-out, drastically reducing the payment for us now and for rental cash flow.Scenario 2: Cash-out refinance up to 70% LTV.

When you take out full height walls you reduce the structure's resistance to wind and earthquake forces.