I have also heard that this bank is actually getting guaranteed loans through Suntrust.The other question, based on my bad math, would it be financially viable to do it.Current loan = 15 yr @ 5.75% @ 135k (12 months x 15 yr = 180 months x 1100 = 198,000 total paid to the bank. (63000 in interest)new loan = 30 yr @ 3.875% @ 103k ( 12 mo x 30 yrs = 360 months x 710 = 255,600 total paid to the bank) (152600 interest) THIS seems wrong somehow...So is that additional interest to the bank really worth refinancing to save 390 a month over the long term?

There is less risk there.And there are Master Lease Options, usually for small 2 to 4 + units where you are guaranteeing a minimum payment to the Owner-Seller and you get what ever you can from your sublease agreements netting a profit.If you are broke, Lease Option Assignments help you get chunk cash faster than most strategies.I wrote an article for BP in 2010 on this herehttp://www.biggerpockets.com/articles/2068-how-to-do-a-lease-option-assignmentsHope this helps!

You probably would need to do a personal guarantee too.

Where the hell else do you get a 8.1% damn near guaranteed returned!

Most of the time this high-maintenance tenancy comes from either a naivety on the reality of homes (they are basically living, breathing things and NONE of them are perfect) OR from a previous landlord who trained them in these bad habits.It's no guarantee that the retraining program will work, but so far each time these tenants have reached out with a creak, or a caulking issue, or something like that it was been met with an informational session on WHY this issue is happening and what they can do the next time. 

I've told them my wife and I will give a personal guarantee on the loan, which in my mind removes the lenders risk of not getting repayment.  

I guarantee you that if the seller is willing to owner finance you are paying too to be able to flip the property.

I read that online and you KNOW if it's on the internet, it's guaranteed to be true all of the times sometimes.    ,-)

To further justify my response to question 1, a lower cap gains tax/1031 exchange advantage is not guaranteed to stay forever.

I can almost guarantee that the free ebook, podcasts, and downloads were the first reason people opted in, followed by the educational blogs and forums.