Im curious what you all think about what the federal reserve interest rates will be in the coming future.Personally I don't try to predict the market especially the Federal Reserve however this is unique we seem to be we are approaching the top of the market with how hot it currently is.

Property taxes are only one component of all expenses, so the question is whether the sixteen percent rent increase covers your total increase in expenses plus additional risk and return.If your expenses (and reserves are an expense) are greater than rents (which are set by the market), then sell or go bankrupt.

This keeps you budgeted as if you were paying rent, it's that much money you can set aside for reserve or the next investment, and it helps you show the numbers to a potential buyer in the future.

Not one time, this past year, have any of us gained a reservation or lost one. 

I'm sure if you adjust some of those reserves and the down payment you may find it to still be an alright deal. 

This pretty much will use up my reserves.

What advantages would there be in paying back loan slowly and increasing cash reserves?

The 3% mortgages have MORE servicing value for the opposite reason, these ones aren't likely to be refinanced any time soon, and the market thinks they are less likely to be paid off via home sale to boot.This isn't about your or my crystal ball predictions for inflation and interest rates, this is about billions of dollars of real life bets being placed on Wall Street and by big banks.There's another reason big banks are valuing these low rate mortgage pools: Thanks to some deregulation that happened, they get to use the escrow accounts as "deposits" for the purpose of fractional reserve banking.

That's what happened between 2004 and 2006 when the Federal Reserve started raising the fed funds rate.

There are 2 conventional renovation products that are for investor financing that I am aware of: The HomeStyle which limits you to a SFR for an investor and the EZ-C Renovation that you can do with up to 4 units, and limits you to a max of 35k for renovation, with reserve contingencies.