1st BRRRR home strategy out of state

[Eric Phillips]

Greetings,

I'm looking into how to go about securing my first rental investment property and I thought I'd lay out my thought process here. I was an active duty military member down in southern California for a few years and I came to the realization that rental properties in close proximity to bases would make a great investment. My goal is to use the BRRRR method and try to collect multiple single family homes outside of California...too expensive here and renters have a lopsided amount of rights.

I'm looking into San Antonio/ Dallas area to begin my journey into owning my first rental property.  Seems like i could snag a 3/1 house thats nearly ready to rent for about $130,000 and the rent would clear me $300 - $550 a month in profit. Ideally I would be able to refi right after getting a tenant in, get my initial down payment back out to hunt for the next house and meanwhile i would be saving the profit of the first house to deal with any issues that may come up with that house. 

Here's what i have to work with:

My current CA home value = $600,000

I only owe $222,000 on the house

I refi'd 6 months ago to get money to upgrade the house...central heating and air/ new kitchen/ landscaping/ New electrical panel and 200 Amp service.  Surely these things will boost the home's value.

I have a steady job that could afford to pay the mortgage of the second house should i not have a renter.

700 ish credit score

No real debt besides a truck payment/ motorcycle payment...low debt to income ratio basically.

I've owned a house since i was 20 years old...30 now and I've done tons of troubleshooting/ repair on homes so i know a dump when i see one.

Here's what i know i need to iron out:

How do i come up with a down payment for the second house?  Refi my primary residence since my i have a ton of equity?  I have some cash but would rather use that on rehab.

What is considered a rehab?  Like paint and flooring or is that not considered a rehab?

If all i do is cosmetic stuff like paint/ floors/ lighting then can i refi and get my down payment money back out?

I want to refi my rental property asap to get that down payment money back out of it to buy another house.  I understand theres an overlay that could be 6 months to a year, which is a crapshoot.  I also know there are lenders out there like maybe small credit unions that will refi you right away because they have money of their own.  I'm guessing you either call around to find one of these lenders or someone cool could refer you to one.

Should i start working with a realtor right away?  I'm thinking it may take a while to find someone I like... ideally someone i could continue to use.

I've been doing a ton of research but also value others opinion so answering any of these would greatly help me out.

Thanks!