It’s all about marketing. anyway.  

Don’t pay $15k penalty to save $13k.

Here in the Reno, NV area there are new construction homes that have tenants already in place, paying above market rent, and the builders are offer 5.5% interest if you use their lender.

Unless you're buying under market value or with all/mostly cash, it can be tough to be cash flow positive on a rental property here, and extremely unlikely to find any that meet the 1% rule as a LTR.

I do recommend jumping into the Short-Term Rental market!

Or else you will pay literally, all costs!

@Raphael Pangilinan you will want to interview several HMLs as they may offer different terms depending on your experience.I’m very familiar with the Temple market and I have investments there myself.

We have land owners that would like to pay us to build for them, but are willing to partner with us in order to help us move into the market and also this is the only way we are willing to build for them.

So, the question becomes when things get hairy is can you FORCE them to pay.

Assuming that is the case, I would prioritize entitlements over paying off your existing mortgage.