So if you saw a BEAUTIFUL acre sized horse property on the edge of town that every wanted and every one agreed was worth $1M today.

One I would keep as my residence. 

A lot of people sleep on properties that have been sitting, but where some profitable opportunities are.That said, I’ve been spending a lot of time working directly with investors and sourcing off-market multifamily deals—ones that never make it to Zillow or Redfin.

Additionally, we rented out a room for one year.

Refinance is one way to do it, if you want to avoid getting new debt because cash flow is high look into lease options to buy or executory contracts.

Also, why not utilize section 8 on this one?

I dont know the terms of this specific home equity agreement but the ones I have seen in the past were pretty expensive.

We are fairly new to real estate investing with one single-family, cash-flowing property under our belt in Augusta, GA.

By purchasing a multi-unit property, living in one unit, and renting out the others, you can cover your mortgage payments and start building equity while gaining rental income.

The ones with no seasoning periods will make you pay dearly either with the rate or with loan costs.In the scenario you mentions above, if you bought a house for 30k (you didn't mention doing any work, but I assume since you mentioned BRRRR there is a rehab), you do the work and get a renter in there with a lease and then after the seasoning period, you now can refinance based off the new value of 165k of which you should get 75%.But why 15 yr mortgage, why not 30 yr to make the payment smaller?