@Isaac Hayes I have never heard of a conventional lender doing this...you're looking at single family (1-4 unit) properties...unless you are using a renovation style loan or hard money, I highly doubt any mortgage originator using conforming guidelines would touch this...Down payment is skin in the game...a lender permitting you to retain your investment account without collecting your down payment?...

I went the route of getting an LLC, buying in my personal name (for the great rates/terms with conventional loans), and then deeding the property over to the LLC. 

I’m receiving a conventional mortgage for first time buyers that requires one year of owner occupancy.

I am looking into buying my first rental property with hard money.I am curious to know the process a conventional lender would take to refi out of the hard money loan for the rate and term.

Although the replies so far may have you thinking that you can't get another FHA - just know that a lot of lenders also have 5-10% down Conventional loans that look a lot like FHA.

Maybe you have enough down for a conventional loan otherwise, so that wouldn't matter. 2) Another option would be to form an LLC.

There's also a question of whether it makes sense for my business to lease 51% of the building (I really only need a small office for that business and the building is about 6400 square feet).Would it be better for me to just negotiate a master lease with option so I will have 3 years to generate the 20% down payment for a conventional loan?

The costs in TurboTenant are the background checks a new tenant would have during the screening process, which the prospective tenant pays for as well as a small charge to have Digital signatures on documents that I store online (it's $9 and also charged to the tenant).Beyond that, I use google docs (mostly sheets) for my underwriting/review process.The only item I pay for is Quicken, which has a yearly fee now.  

Conventional mortgage.

Another thing to think about is what alternatives do you have other than a conventional 20% down owner occupied loan or a 3.5% FHA loan.