The cash out refi would give you a fixed rate for a longer term, but the HELOC would have lower upfront costs (usually none to a few hundred bucks). 

I’m a recent grad (kinda-c/o2016) & I want to buy a duplex in Milwaukee,WI.

Right now Milwaukee is very appealing to me with lower cost of entry and still easy to drive to.

May be the best couple hundred bucks you ever spend. 

I'm looking for a live-in-then-rent property with a bit more elbow room than the neighborhoods I mentioned (nothing against those areas just looking for a bit more bang for my buck).

Im at Belmont/Milwaukee.

It's 2018... days of damaged roofs due to solar installs are long gone (unless you have a ceramic tile roof or something that easily breaks when stepped on)You can easily reduce your power bill down to just the utility's basic charge, typically 5-10 bucks per month.

I had about 100 feet of fence taken down and  about 40 feet reinstalled in a different location on the lot (tying in to the fence at the back of the property) for a few hundred bucks last year.

Oh, yeah, from what I understand, CA still charges you the 800 bucks for out of state LLCs and they still don’t protect much unless you’re actually investing mostly out of state and at that, it gives you little protection and n CA.

If I were a halfway decent tenant and my landlord told me that my kids and I don't get to have heat for four days because he didn't want to spend a few bucks on an HVAC tech, that would not sit well with me.