So I was glad they were there to witness it also because I assume they had just gotten used to the smell.At any rate, I wish you all luck and hope you're treated fairly with the security deposit. 

I want to warn you tenants will not treat the property the same way you did.

I have lost zero dollars to any liberal policies because I rent to good people and treat people well.

Treat him like any other tenant. 

Traditionally a second home that you plan to be at part time has been treated differently from all other investment properties.

Yes forget about it, and in fact treat those properties as properties you MUST avoid!

You're better off getting a good HVAC vendor that will treat you right and get the job done.

Their position is, there's no rental agreement and you haven't been treating it as a rental on your tax returns, so they're not considering it a rental property and not considering anything your family gives you as rental income to offset the mortgage obligation.On the general point though, the new lender's proposal of taking a bigger primary residence loan and paying off your second home, yes I think it would benefit them (bigger loan amount and more interest), but I also think it would benefit you.Think about it this way, right now you're paying 4.5% on 67K and 5.25% on 180K, or over 12K in interest a year.

Instead, they are treated as suspended losses from a former passive activity [Reg. 1.469-9(e)(2)].

I would definitely treat your question as 2 parts.  1) how do I pull out cash from equity.  2) how to best buy a second property.