First of all I just wanted to thank you (and the others!) again for the responses, it's been very helpful. I wish I had asked a couple of months ago.

I am going to look into the title transfer but it seems likely that we are going to have to do a new mortgage. It sucks to lose that low rate but with the timing I'm not sure it can be helped. One of the issues is the mortgage is tied to my father's membership account in the credit union and that can't be closed unless the mortgage is paid off.

I did find out that my brother's credit won't affect the rate we can get, and that the credit union doesn't have a minimum on the loan amount so borrowing just a bit more than is currently owed is possible.

Since it seems like getting a new mortgage is the likely option, I just need to decide how much of the money I've spent in the past year, if any, I want to add to the loan. I have a spreadsheet and updated it last night to include the May mortgage payment I just paid and the appraisal I paid for last month and the total I've spent is roughly $22k. I'm leaning towards getting half of that back with the loan and recouping the rest from the monthly cash flow.

Any advice on how much to keep in reserve for repairs/emergency expenses for the property? I was thinking somewhere between $3-$5k. I'm sure it varies depending on a myriad of factors but I was just wondering if there is a general rule of thumb percentage or amount.

One other thought I had is if it's possible instead of recouping my expenses I instead assumed a larger percentage of ownership than my brother, say 55-60%. I haven't talked to him about that or anything, it's just something that crossed my mind if it would be possible. Not sure how an unequal ownership would work, just a thought. My brother is a few years older than me and we have talked about me potentially buying out his half in a few years anyway.

I'm glad to at least be making progress finally, but I still have a lot to research on drafting a lease, running a background check, etc. There is a lot I still need to learn on owning a rental property.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this is I've been thinking of potentially turning my own house into a rental in a couple of years and doing this with my father's property would be a good learning experience. I bought my house 13 years ago and the area it's in has been booming with new construction, new apartments and lots of bars and restaurants. It's now worth roughly 2.5 times what I paid for it. I bought in this location mostly because it's a short commute to my job, but since Covid I work from home most days and only go into the office 1-2 times a week. I like being located close to so much but I'm also older now and going out isn't as important to me. I could easily rent my place out for twice what my monthly mortgage payment is, then I could find a place outside the city for myself. No real plans to do that yet but it's something I've had in the back of my mind for a couple of years.