My husband and I have bought two properties (a 1br condo -rented and 3br townhouse we live in) with in the past eight months in a "hot market". My husband wants to buy regular single family house.

We have @ 60k in equity in the townhouse but we have put @ 10 k in improvemnts in since we moved in. I think that if we waited and put more equity in we would be in better financial shape but since the market is "so hot" he is affaid that we may lose ground in the signle family market.

I thought of the idea today of renting our townhome and getting the house 0 down and then selling in another year or two to gain value. We could break even on the rent and maintain the value. Or should we refinance this residence to strip the value? I also thought of a credit line but I did not want another payment. We both have fairly good jobs and could qualify w/ no money down.

Any thought? We are also in our early 30's w/ no kids could this be a way to start rental investing?

I would suggest working with a broker, who could investigate several options for you....you may find that you could better your current interest rate and still take cash out, making the new home purchase more attractive than the rates with a 0 down loan. I know the headache of another payment seems daunting, but if it saves you money every month? You can always set up an automatic draft. Regardless, If your credit is good you should be able to get into a new home with 0 down. If you can provide a rental agreement for your current home, you should be able to buy the new SFR as an owner occupied property, which will give you the most attractive rates. Call me if you'd like me to ballpark some rates for you, and give you an idea of what type of payments you'd be looking at. I can even get you a pre-approval, which may make shopping a little easier. Good Luck!

It sounds like your in a good possition no matter what direction you choose. I am a Mortgage Broker, I do commercial and residential but I only cover Texas. I would be happy to give you a few different ideas and answer any questions you may have. We can even put together good faith estimates to show you the difference. The biggest thing right now is "interest only". This may help you show your husband the benefit of keeping the property and renting it out. Refinance it first "interest only" 3yr,5yr, or even a 10 yr, interest first loan. You already have equity in the property, the new lower payment covers the interest every month, your rent it out for more and either apply it to the principal or use it towards your new house payment. There are too many options to list in this note. You can call or e-mail me if you would like to see some options with numbers and weigh it out yourself. The key is to get informed. I hope this helped you some.

Patsy
patsyg@tricoastfunding.com