If you own any property you can get 75%rental income otherwise the lender will hit your DTI with full payment.  620 is minimum FICO requirement  for conventional loan.  

I am too busy with my full time job to do the lead part but have the ability to buy stuff pretty easily.

Hi Chris,Unfortunately a lot of sellers (especially wholesalers with a large database) like full cash buyers only because to be honest ( I think my job might kill me for saying this lol) hard money is not always guaranteed due to the fact that it is based on appraisals and feasibility inspections.

Plus it should be much cheaper overall.The only catch, at least in my case, was that the commercial loan still required a personal guarantee - meaning full doc loan (bank statements, tax returns, etc). 

We were newbies and not that different from other newbies but maybe I was around RE investing more growing up than most but I had to convince a wife (who now is fully on board but was only a little on board during the Great Recession when it would have been great time to have purchased more).Now with more knowledge I would avoid purchasing RE investments at full retail. 

Let's say I cash out refinance a rental property; can I still deduct the full amount of interest expense on the new loan, or just a portion of it if I don't reinvest the money cashed out?

The primary purpose was originally to be closer to my part-time job, where I intend to begin building a business out of and going full time over the next few years.

I have done many rehab projects over the years but it has been several years since I have done a full house rehab (4 or 5?)

-Full kitchen tear out and rebuild $10000-12000-All new flooring $3000-$4000-Paint $1000-A few fixtures $1500-2250-appliances $4000-roofing $6000-8000-Siding (is a maybe depending on how the rest of the neighbor looks) $3500-5000-deck repairs $1000- garage door $800-1500- Bothroom upgrades $3000Depending on the lay out we would be looking at doing master suite with a Bathroom.

I'm currently still working a full time job, sorry for the delayed response.