Lewiston Maine has a good amount of multis.

Good luck

The buyer ended up buying and reconverting to a single family, and doubled his purchase price.Yeah, that's actually a really good and in-the-now viable strategy. 

You're off to a bad start if you must create a poor perception of other options to make your concept look good.  

I have an opportunity to get into a property that doesn’t have any true equity, but the terms are really good.

That is a really low rate which is good so second or heloc would be better unless you didnt have the cash to get a second mortgage and the rate difference * cost of second home dont exceed the rate difference to your primary * principle left.I would lean fixed heloc then you could always refinance if rates go down.

I bought 2 new construction in Athens last summer and rented them right away... so far so good. 

Good luck!

I made some really good connections and now the rest is history. 

Today it has good cash flow (~$6k/month using 49% expense ratio) and is up ~$1m above costs.