Effectively, allowing you to amortize it over 30 years which is likely to result in a much lower mtg payment than paying monthly PMI.

There is also some effect from long term and short term rental conversions.

I then refinanced to a 30-yr 3.125% loan which effectively lowered my DP by $450/month!

A heat pump isn’t normally cost effective in my area, and I wouldn’t think so for your winters.

I just want to know another way that would be smarter or more effective with starting out.

Another effective way is reaching out to local property managers and RE agents, they should be able to tell you what to expect for that specific location.

I was just thinking about this today as I was driving home: the federal government has implemented an evection freeze in effect until December 31, 2020 for all tenants claiming to be adversely affected by COVID-19.

Plumber seems to keep pushing the lining of the pipe as it's cost effective and last 50+ years, however, he has to dig a trench to do so.

If you totally rehabbed everything that you mentioned for only $23,000 you need to write a book and tell the rest of the world how to do it so cost effectively. :-)

My ultimate goal is to leverage this property and take out money in it to purchase another one and the cash out refinance was, what I thought, the most effective way of doing that without touching my own money.