So, I guess my options are to either refi the current rental or just wait and save up for a new down payment on a conventional loan.  

Saving around 10,000 would take me twos so if I'm able to get by with a lower down payment I will gladly do so..I understand  concerns that the lower the down payment  the bigger your mortgage and that banks offering low money down loans partly caused the recession....

He offered to have me take over his PITI payments of around $400.

I have plenty of cash for down payments/rehab costs as well as cash reserves.

Renting my house 1150.00 month house payment 1235.00 refinanced 205.000 at 3.4% how to get house payment down

I do not have personal experience investing in flyover states, so take this with a grain of salt.This is my 'gut reaction,' which could 100% be totally off & I'll defer to those with actual experience 100%...Any place you are buying that has tenants paying 2x in rent what they could otherwise pay in PITI because the [ $70k * 3.5% = $2450 ] down payment is too much of a down payment for them to save up, isn't exactly going to have high quality low maintenance intelligent people as tenants. 

Well that 15k im talking about is 20% of purchase price which is the down payment most investors need for rentals.

The digital output on the screens helps.I've bought one bank foreclosure and one tax sale in the past year.

In addition, a form should be sent to each tenant requesting a list of payments made to the PM for the last three months, at least for the first year

Refinance your house (should get 70%) and use that cash for the 20% down payments for your next investment.