How does that work with a lender?

-Should I put the property under an LLC (pay higher mortgage rate, but better protection against lawsuits) or keep under my name?

or, you could house hack with a $3000 mortgage and collect $1400 in rent. 

Could be possible for a fix and flip hard money loan for a lender that ventures past single units. 

Do not buy a house together (meaning both on deed and mortgage) if you are not married. 2.

What's better, sfr just you or the small multi fam with a significant percentage of the mortgage paid by tenants?

Banks are like that maybe that’s the max loan they can do for their DSCR requirements which are typically much higher, that’s why there are DSCR lenders!

Your "Core 4"(Realtor, Property manager, Contractor, Lender) are all critical to your success. 

I was able to set and get the rent high enough at the AZ home to cover both the orginal mortgage and the equity loan.  

@Manny Martinez FHA monthly mortgage insurance is typically 0.85% of the loan amount, so you are effectively already paying the rate you were quoted, $200 per month on an $80,000 loan amount would be about the equivalent of a 3% interest only loan, now factor in the difficulty in finding a 2nd mortgage in todays rate environment that low and assuming the refi rate you are talking about is a fixed rate, your $200 extra per month is paying down the balance of the $80k further reducing the effective rate you are paying on the $80k, all while paying about the same effective rate on your existing balance when you combine your rate and MMI... seems like it is a good move to me or at least better than finding a 2nd mortgage.