Congrats @Wade StahleYou said you built them right which equated to more equity than expected.  

Jon,Thinking about this overnight - and at the risk of wearing out my welcome - here is another way to look at the return on that 400k, and what it buys.First it gets a 430k loan at 4.78% being paid off by the property. even at the NOI you corrected, the $27k year payments are covered by the property. ( esp. as we are 37% of gross rents in this equation, and that shifts down the expense ratio somewhat I think. the bank will use 75% of gross but I guess that's high. )Second the rental savings of $25k in reduced expenses is real. penny saved = earned.so from this perspective it's a very tax advantaged 50k return on 400k in year one with no appreciation of rents or equity. that's a 12.5% return that will grow in time.

Obviously vacancies, turnovers, etc need to be put into the equation as well!

People from my school graduate with ~$400k of student loans if they have no savings/parents to help pay for tuition, which equates to an additional ~$25-30k year of loans (at ~6.8% APR) for every year of residency beyond medical/dental school, so anything helps.  

This is a great question as folks sometimes equate "investor friendly" with a willingness to submit dozens of low ball offers.  

And then we got married and had a baby.Now I have the better job I was looking for, but taking on some student debt, adding my wife's previous debt to the equation, and having to find a better place to live put a serious dent in my investment plans.The house is renting and breaking even while we rent elsewhere for a slightly lower price, and we're making just enough income to save a little and not dig ourselves a hole, but we're not on the path to much growth right now, and we have no borrowing power.I'm looking to volunteer my time to help some established investors out and gain the real estate experience and skills I need to eventually land some profitable partnership deals despite my limited spending power.

@Raymond GuillotteI suggest house hacking and living for freeThat takes one of your expenses out of the equation$1500/mo in student debt is nutty

. $4,656 profit just doesn't seem like a good ROI when you think of all the risks or a problem that requires more $$$ or I may have forgot about something in the initial equation.  

This is countered by your desire to move into a better school district, which complicates the equation. 

Probably not with the refi because larger loan equates to higher payment.