The lender is also offering a “6-month lender streamline” where, after six on-time payments, they claim they can lower the rate by 0.5% with no fees, no appraisal, and no income/credit check.

He goes silent until I followed-up and he said he got a quote from Kiavi at a much lower rate and lower fee. 

I've noticed that many lower-income people will sometimes donate a good percentage of their income to their church. 

If the bank appraises closer to the lower number, you won’t get the refi amount you’re expecting… and the whole BRRRR structure falls apart.

As a landlord, you can deduct mortgage interest, property taxes, repairs, and insurance, which will help lower your taxable income.

The ways around this are usually: (1) switch from replacement cost to actual cash value (ACV) or functional replacement cost, so the insured value better matches the real economic value, and (2) use an agreed value/stated amount endorsement so the company agrees up front to a lower limit without hitting you with a coinsurance penalty.

Not to say that it can't be done, but likelihood of success is far lower in my opinion 

From an investor standpoint, when you factor in lower CapEx, warranties, energy efficiency, and potential rate buy-downs, new builds can actually offer better risk-adjusted returns than older resales.

The entry point in OKC is certainly lower than the Dallas area but rents are also lower so you need to adjust for that as well.

So this is the time to do a refi due to the work being done with the appreciation, and also my rate going to be 1%-1.25% lower than it is now.