You could deploy that money elsewhere and buy a few  smaller (or at least less expensive) homes in a friendlier market and come out way ahead unless you are content with just waiting for the market to appreciate.  

Just curious how your transaction went and what financing vehicle you ended up going with?

If you want to install it on your own home so you can feel good/smug, go ahead, it’s your money.

But to me as a businessman that seems like a workaround if I were personally needing to take a large dollar amount right off ahead of doing business.

4) Is there any good way to "calculate" the new appraised value ahead of time to know what to fix/rehab?

I have seen COUNTLESS people get a head of themselves on this platform.

Build a contingency budget into your plan by allocating an extra 10-20% for these surprises.To get ahead of potential problems, conduct thorough inspections from top to bottom before buying a property.

Would love to hear how you went ahead and structured this. 

Go ahead and purchase it.

Go ahead.”