@Ryan Donohue Excel is incredibly powerful!

And I say ASAP because an appropriate rental for me to move into just became available.Here are my assumptions: The condo will be fairly easy to rent The rental income will only cover 75% of my monthly expenses on the condo (mortgage, taxes, HOA fees) but I'm stuck paying those regardless.The rent payment for my new place, and the rent I collect, will be the same on a monthly basis (break-even)Repair/maintenance costs will be the same whether I live in the condo or rent it out (break-even)I will incur new costs for professional management and potential vacancyThe condo is in a good location and I won’t be underwater in five yearsMy front-end DTI is 28% and I have excellent credit with no other debtHere are my questions:From what I’ve read, there is some variation in what lenders require to use rental income to qualify for the next mortgage.  

Congratulation on your decision to "step out", after being in conventional real estate for so long, it is a big decision to want to be more productive, earn more, and build a portfolio of profitable properties as a real estate investor.It is difficult however for agents/brokers to change hats, to forget the old ways of doing the conventional real estate business and to get educated on the creative ways to control and roll real estate.I commend your decision to do so.One Broker to another, if you need some suggestions, just give me a call.Good luck.

I've found it to be an excellent method for building a client base.

I admire and have lots of respect for anyone who is in business for themselves, it's not easy to keep your head above the financial waters, while paying taxes, taking care of production and baby sitting employees.As business people this is why we need real estate to shelter our business income and to have a cash flow back-up for the times when cash flow is low in our businesses.Good luck.....Charles

Excellent to know @Daria B., I actually have a meeting set tomorrow with M&T Bank's mortgage department.The primary agenda of the visit was information on refinancing but I'll be sure to get some details from their side as well on HELOCs. 

@Lucas Machado excellent that is good to know.

And while there are certainly things you can do with $13K, it becomes difficult with smaller funding amounts to keep things arms length and yet also productive for the IRA.

My current long-term interest rates are much higher than I would like, even though my rental portfolio does support the higher payment.What I'm considering is:Putting together a financials packet showing the potential for the credit union to realize excellent return on their money.  

In this case they should have known up front that there weren't going to get paid for such listing which would have brought me back personally to a conversation that I've had with other investors that I work with which is the following:On off market deals in which the seller (no matter who) is not paying a commission I'll work either two ways but  first off let me say I won't bring you the deal unless you're going to give me the listing when it comes to retail (the finished product) so that's that.