Pay off my rental or buy my 2nd

[Chris McDonald]

I recently purchased my first rental property (Duplex) for $65,000. I had to put 25% down for a 30 year mortgage so I still owe just under $49,000. I do have an investment mortgage on this property because I do not live there. Both units are currently rented out. The property was appraised and $75,000 when I had it appraised recently. So right off the bat I have $10,000 equity. Now I'm able to find plenty of information about going about buying your first property but not as much info about the next step. I have a good amount of money saved again and want to see what my best option is. Now my question is since I owe $49,000 on my rental property am I better off paying that property off completely or do I just simply move onto purchasing my next property.

[Karen O.]

Correction: Your equity in the first property is 26k.  That includes the 16k down payment.

Since the financing is only 2 months old, it probably hasn't seasoned enough to qualify for a refi.

However, since you have saved up some funds and are ready to find your next property, why not go back to the banker, if you used one, and make a pitch to see if they'd fund you again and if so, how soon.  I'm thinking it can't hurt to start making those local connections.