Looking for advice on getting started. I am new to the community.

[Brandon Finkelstein]

Hello everyone! I am new to BP and real estate investing. My name is Brandon, I am 41 years old, live in Vero Beach, FL. and make 50k/year. I have been in the construction industry since I was 18 years old. For the last 20 years I have been in the home itegration industry designing and installing smart homes(home theater, security, cameras, computer networking, lighting control, etc.) as a project manager. I have watched homes being built from the ground up my whole career and I love being on construction sites. It has always been a dream of mine to own rental properties, but never thought I could for financial reasons. 

I bought my home in 2010 for 100k and owe 85k on my loan (30yr fixed 5.25%). I started getting yellow letters constantly a few months ago so I looked up the value of my home on Zillow and it says its worth 235k. I know its not too accurate, but the home across the street sold for 240k about 6 months ago. My house was built in 1987 and is pretty outdated so it probably would not appraise for anywhere near that. 
There is also alot of work that needs to be done around the house like painting, repairing some rotten wood (decorative) around the exterior of the home, drywall repairs from replacing the copper pipes, finishing the tile in the master bedroom, updating the kitchen and master bathroom, painting inside and out. I only have so much free time and money to work on these things and have never really been in a rush to get them done,  but due to some recent events I have recently been thinking a lot about my future and retirement. My goal is to have enough rental properties to cover my monthly expenses (approx. 3k/month). I am in no rush to get there, but I do need to get started soon if I hope to acheive this. 

I recently got quotes from lenders to do a cash-out refi with 2.25-2.75% depending on the terms, but I would need to get my place appraised. I imagine it would be best to try and get the repairs done before having it appraised since I can only get 80% of the equity on the cash-out. Do I need to get my place appraised if I get a HELOC? I am not very familiar with those and not sure if that would be a good idea to put as a down payment for a rental property due to the terms. It would take me probably 6 months to get the repairs done if I keep trying to finish it in my free time though. Would I be better off using my CC or taking out a personal loan and paying contractors to get the work done and paying that off with the cash-out? I have also been toying with the idea of going to a REIA meet up and offering my house as a deal to an investor if they take me through the process of finding and purchasing a small multi-family(duplex, triplex, or quadplex) I could live in while renting the others out.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I look forward to any advice you can provide and to becoming a part of this great community.

Books I have read recently include Think and Grow Rich, Rich Dad's Guide to Investing, ABC's of Real Estate Investing, The Millionaire Next Door, and Set for Life. Podcasts I am listening to currently are Real Estate 101 and BP.