I had a 8.75% mortgage with a balance of $45,000 on one rental, and a 7.85% loan on the other with a balance of $68,000. Given the relatively high interest rates, I decided to refinance Rental A at about 6%, and use the equity from that property to pay off the loan on Rental B. Effectively, I refinanced both in one deal. A month after closing, I received my new payment book and other papers and discovered that instead of paying off the loan on Rental B, the boobs paid off the loan on my personal home, which had roughly the same balance. When I informed the closing company of the mistake, nothing was really said or done, and after several attempts to fix things, I got tired of unreturned calls and gave up.

Besides, I thought, “Cool. I have all my risk in Rental A and two houses paid off.” The only rub is I am still paying an interest rate of 7.85%, when the rate on my house loan was around 6.25%. I plan to own rental houses forever as my “401(k)” plan, and expect to buy more. I will likely sell my home sometime in the next 10 years, once I have a family, so I will be in a better school district. Am I missing any savings by having it structured like it is? Chad Mankins, Denton, Texas.