I am not looking to take equity out against my house, and my other 2 rental properties are already going through a cash out refinance to pay for renovations of a fixer upper that I am buying.

Are you looking to buy something already done for you?

Now he is saying that it's a "second home" mortgage (higher interest rate) because she won't be living there (but if I buy in MD, we still have to pay the state transfer tax because I have owned in MD before.)

-People who bought at the height of the market in 2008 are actually doing better than anyone buying today assuming they kept the property.

Where I made money was through renovations and ultimately appreciation, by buying in neighborhoods adjacent to where I lived, which I saw as gentrifying.  

The cost for material would be $15-20 on the low end and that would leave only $$25-30 to go to the store buy a door knob come back and install.

understood but for us investor, not losing money is important...... you could use zillow or redfin or goldman, their prediction is more or less the same, next year is either mildly grow or decline depending on the market.We are investor not being pressurized to keep buy investment, we only buy when condition suits us, and 2025 looks like more favorable to us. 

This tweet From X is very funny :So, basically, we buy 9caps in the Midwest.

ROW owner won’t buy it because he doesn’t want the tax liability.

Of course, this is going to depend on how many points you're willing to eat for buy down (break even analysis timeline is a must), but either way, mid 9%s is at least 1-2% high.