I don't believe though that COVID will lower the overall purchase price of properties and even PAR (Pennsylvania Association of Realtors) has cited that.

Happy to discuss what I've seen and the areas where people have found some success with some degree of mitigated risks. 

Why are you even considering doing anything but your engineering degree.

I am just starting out as a rental property investor and I was curious if anyone feels it’s beneficial and a necessity to join the Real Estate Investor’s Association in the area that you are looking to buy?

The Cosmopolitan Houses tenant association wrote in a letter to the landlord that government action should “include relief for small landlords with financial hardship” as a result of the strike.

As the president of a Mid-Atlantic REIA (MAREIA), a local investor association, my advice, as alway is to get a good education as a foundation for your real estate business.

Attend local RE associations and meetups (once group functions are allowed again), and meet people doing what you want to do.

It will take my 4 years to pay off the fees associated with this refi. 

Dopp associates the dings with cancellations and financial misery.

If that happens, and you can act within that window to lock in a low fixed rate on a discounted property, it may be one heck of an opportunity (I'm thinking that's a few months out depending whether we have a second wave of COVID, and it might very well be location-specific, proportionate to the degree of economic carnage caused by COVID).