Obviously you want to pay attention to your interest rates, cost of appraisals, and fees for refinancing.

But with the financed deal the renter pays the mortgage down allowing you to tap a percentage of the equity as a tax free loan.

I am very data driven and I simply don't see Philly as an attractive destination unless you are -- local, hands on, DIY, don't have prop mgmt expenses, don't pay leasing commissions, get preferred rates from lenders, know a guy who does handyman work, etc. 

They have high loan amounts and a very long draw period and long pay back period.

The problem is the longer we go paying this payment the farther behind we get on everything else and the lender isn't reporting the payments to the credit bureaus.

He said that we can just move the meter from our common area electric (which I pay) over to the socket for her electric in the meantime when he upgrades the base, this way she gets power and we will just go without lights in the basement and common area.

Pay attention.STEP 1:Lists, foreclosures, absentee owners, probates bla bla bla, you need to send thousands of mailers calls or texts to get one deal yes?

If you don't own the house yet, you really need to pay the guy otherwise it's a waste of his time.Sometimes roofers and pools companies will give an estimate based on google maps. 

She will be paying rent anyways with me so her paying me rent and building our future wealth when we do get married is a much bigger win than us both paying down someone else's mortgage. 

Many lenders offer competitive introductory rates, so if the goal is to pay off ASAP you will benefit from this.