Advice on BRRRR and refi cash pullout

[Jake Thornton]

OK, so I'm fairly new to the community here, but a couple of months ago I picked up the BRRRR book and I'm in love with the concept.

A little about me. I work as a screenwriter in Hollywood. I've had some successes (although nothing has been made), but three years ago hit a real tough couple of years where none of the projects that I was counting on moving forward did, and I really faced the truth about my industry: it's feast or famine. With two young kids, and really the only breadwinner in the family, I was faced with the very really possibility of selling my home. Since then things have picked up slightly, but I started during that time to educate myself financially, and read at least two books on money/self improvement/business a month. During the lean months, my family rented out our suite nice home in LA on airbnb, but last year about this time, decided that we should try something new. So we, with the help of family members, started two airbnb's in the Lake Arrowhead area of Southern California which have been producing quite nice cash flow. We also just bought a converted school bus to use as an airbnb in the Joshua Tree area of SoCal too. So that's that. 

My long term goal has always been buy and hold for single and multifamily. I'd always bought into the idea that properties should be within 50 miles of your house, but living in LA, it's just not feasible to get something of a deal given my access to cash. So I''ve begun the tentative looks out of state and have been reading to Long Term Real Estate Investing to help manage my ideas of that. 

So while I have quite nice cash flow from my airbnb's, I really don't want to wait to start the process of BRRRRing. So I've looked at the numbers of my house. It's worth now about $925k, and the balance on the mortgage is about $585. I've thought about doing HELOC's, but my previous year my income on my taxes was $10k (yikes!) and last year about $25k (slightly less yikes, but still yikes) and didn't qualify due to income. This year should be slightly better. So I'm contemplating a refi on the home, and pulling approx $185k to get started with this BRRRR thang.

I've already started conversations with a realtor in Kansas City, but open to more markets and ideas. 

I suppose my question is is does all this sound like a good idea? Will I even qualify for a refi? What advice do you all have to get a newbie going knowing my situation. 

Thanks in advance!

Jake