I'm looking at two different lending options.Regardless of which option I choose, my plan is to refinance by Year 5 of owning the property to: a) get rid of PMI if appreciation is good and LTV < 80%, and b) cash-out equity to purchase a second house hacking property.Assumptions: All in cost: $506,500 (purchase price + rehab costs + closing costs)FHA 203k already accounts for ARV, no natural appreciation, value is flat with LTV at Year 5 between 88-90% 30 year Fixed Rate Mortgage 6.5% APR and 3.5% down, P&I of $3,0915/1 Adjustable Rate Mortgage 6.0% APR and 3.5% down, P&I of $2,932That's an additional ~$150 in monthly cash flow during the first 60 months of owning the property prior to refinancing if I go with the ARM route. 

I would only recommend this route if you were planning on doing more than just this project.- alternate rent models: STR, MTR, rent by room.  

So, if you fail to apply the correct assumptions to a property, your expectations won’t be met and it may even be a financial disaster.We use the following to rank Property Classes, in order of importance: Property Tenant Pool: closely linked to location, but not always.

Quote from @Travis Lake: If I understand you correctly Will, you’re saying maybe hire an employee to manage the portfolio, presumably someone who is licensed in that state.  

You are correct, most properties list accordingly will have multiple offers in this market.

For a NJ house hack, set a tight buy box near your train line or bus route, run actual rents from listings and PMs, and stress test with higher taxes, insurance, and utilities.

Route working capital through business credit/lines that don’t report personally to keep utilization low.

Thinking of doing this as a “reset”, and then going forward in 2026, start doing some of the things (financially) I should have been doing.I want to max out Roth IRAs for my wife and I, contribute to 529s for the kids, and if there is excess money beyond that, go the brokerage route. 

Going the LLC route can mean higher interest, bigger down payments, and extra costs for setup, annual filings, and accounting.

Say you wanna be a real estate investor, In a typical purchase:Let's assume you follow the normal financing route, you want to buy a $400,000 property so you need 20% (or $80,000) for the down payment.