Marcia, Thank you for the additional information. 

In addition, we are also pursuing Financial Independence through a mix of real estate and investment accounts. 

There's a big opportunity cost to paying down existing properties instead of purchasing additional ones. 

I currently rent and have no real estate to my name. An LLC i'm a minority member of is undergoing an acquisition and my idea for planning for my tax bill is to start a new LLC just for real estate, and have the LLC p...

And, everything else you said boils down to PRECISELY what I said--the mortgage company is generating a lot of fees IN ADDITION TO their advertised interest rate.

Both units are the same size but the neighbors' house has a 3rd bedroom on the top floor (the builder reduced the size of the master bedroom and bath and put the laundry in the second bathroom to get the additional space for the very small 3rd bedroom).

The chances of you getting any additional money out of them are extremely slim to none.

These are professionals with additional training and a stricter code of ethics.

The additional panels and trim add significantly to the cost.  

In addition, it is consuming over half of my line of credit which limits me from buying other projects.