I just say bluntly, "No, that's mortgage fraud, which is a federal crime." 

The mortgage is $1800/ month, but I am looking to refi and pull cash out to finish the ADU and lower my interest rate by 1-1.5 points.Lessons learned?

While we are away, should we simply pay off the mortgage (it will take me approximately 5yrs based on my calculations of additional payments I can afford).

My plan was to live in this property and save up a down payment for property #2, move to property #2 and house hack while making property #1 a full rental.Property #1 has a 4.25% interest rate and has also appreciated significantly (online estimates say $25,000-$40,000 in appreciation) which is a great problem to have.

This includes down payments, negative cash flow, repairs, using your cash to pay down the mortgage. 

You have title, the lender has a mortgage.  

I’m currently running into the same issue, trying to get a mortgage and only using my income (not adding wife to add more mortgages/rentals later).

Seems you just say yes or no to their proposed rate.I mean as a landlord you pay a mortgage (presumably) and try to charge tenants as much as you can to maximize your earnings.

Would break even/no cash flow.Current Holding Pro's of Keeping - 100k of mortgage left gets paid off eventually, resulting in pure cash flow (net of taxes/insurance/etc.).

-Jeremy If you're going to research them from online searches here's a tool for how to vet them: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Km7kNjDOkId_JepdnAvkKa52...