When you have a new area that still has easy access to an established city, it can flourish. 

Are you open to working with contractors, or do you stick with established businesses only?

By the time I launched, I had already established a solid reputation in the Cincinnati market.

One has no mortgage, their other has a HELOC for around $20k remaining and is coming to its 10year term that was established before placing with LLC.My predicament is how/best way to pull equity out of either property for a down payment for the 3 family that is valued around $450k.

All in all, this is exactly why you connect and establish a business relationship with an experienced investor-focused real estate agent who will shoot you straight. 

Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

How many lots in those neighborhoods sold near that date to establish comps? 

I understand that starting out, depending on how fast you want to build your portfolio, you could spend a lot of time at it.For those with established investment portfolios, how much time is required to maintain it?

thanks for your time and help rent to retirement works directly with build to rent developers like us around the country once they are framed up. you are buying properties pretty much at market value but with a hand holding. you can work directly with a builder or directly with them. they are just an intermediary. they take 5% on what we make as a builder but have a large list of investors and a systemized approach to selling new builds. if you want to get a better deal I'd recommend directly contacting builders and building it yourself. fly to the market. spend 2 days, tour new builds, get a feeling for how it's going. if your builder isn't building multiple at a time then I wouldn't recommend working with them. rent to retirement is a well oiled and well run machine. they've had their ups and downs with dozens of transactions in florida but modified their process. they are well known and established and transparent. if you have a more specific market and feel confident in your ability to vet deals try it out. happy to talk more my info is in my signature. we work directly with them to sell new builds and no organization is perfect but I have good things to say about them as a builder and potential build to rent developer that sells build to rent triplexes and single family homes through them to end buyers in California like the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego 

For all methods you would want to find a market that has strong employment rates, strong income rates for the market, and is a growing or an established market.