Often you can get a refi sooner than that but it will be based off of the lower of the appraised value or the purchase price. 

This is in what I’d call about an an A- or B+ neighborhood, in lower income neighborhoods perhaps people wait longer I am not sure. 

That’s why I go no lower than 8.34% (One month rent) for Vacancy reserves.  5% for CapEx may be too low.  

My lender is saying that they go off of the lower of the two scores, and it must be at least 720 to qualify for only 15% down. 

not really...regardless you need a lower purchase price to make either option work. 

Hey guys,I found a property with a special situation: it has two lots - one lower lot with a house and one upper lot that is empty.

I explain to the prospective tenants that in exchange for lower rents I expect tenants to adhere to maintenance rules such as yearly carpet cleaning, monthly house cleaning, AC filter changes etc.

But I was wondering if more experienced investors would recommend trying to get it rented sooner, especially before the school year started, by lowering the rent?

Typically a lower yield property is the market determining that that property is lower risk than some huge pro forma cash flow property, which likely has that proforma cash flow being so much larger because the market views it as a higher risk asset.

You will typically receive lower rates than what you would see with a hard money lender.