I am getting a short-term lease while I get to know the city and save up some money.

In short, I'm a private real estate investor.

That was the highlight of my short realestate career,only been in for a few years.

Worse, if you refi and don’t pay it off quick, you will be taking short term debt and turning into long term.

Both are short-term positions as I am a trader of those instruments.

It will take a bit of luck finding the low rise opportunity in the  near loop discovered areas, but there is lots of work to do farther out. 

Any downturn in the market I believe would be short-lived.

Short answer is yes, Bremerton is booming.   

We typically only accept co-signers if they are short on the income requirements. 

In the right short-term situation where you can buy them out quickly by refiing the property as you suggest I think it works well but those deals are very hard to find for people with deep experience and connections in that local market so for someone with no experience and no local knowledge it's going to be nearly impossible.