Do the low-hanging fruit first: update the blinds, sand and paint cabinets (don't always need to be fully replaced), build/update fencing in yard (having a private back yard is a huge value add), paint dark rooms brighter colors, replace older floors with inexpensive and durable laminate. 

Being conscious of everyone having a different budget, but at any point of your career do you wish you would have rather taken loans/mortgages to grow your portfolio or has the cash route been just enough to have a fruitful investment portfolio?

Also, purchasing only fruits that are in season seems to help.

Just collecting all the juice out of the lemon as much as possible.

For me, the juice has indeed been worth the squeeze.I like my life (specifically the work/life balance), I like my family, and I love Self Storage. 

Point being that market appreciation can juice your appraisal to help out your BRRRR valuation. 

I suspect the one missing item on those lots will be water and sewer  IE well and septic.. in our market here you can spend 50 to 75k just on those items so that would juice your costs up..  

There may not be a enough juice to entice a hands-on active investor, but plenty for the passive investor.  

And if you bought your current house under market, you could get a HELOC on it.Or if you don't want to borrower from others, you could do a loan against your 401K balance up to $50k.Or if you do want to borrower from others, there is the sub2, hard money, private money, etc.But it sounds like you need to start reading one of many books on creative finance (https://store.biggerpockets.co...) or (https://archive.org/details/in...) or (https://archive.org/details/in...) to get those juices flowing, and thinking outside the bank box.

Every website that links to your site passes value (or "link juice") to your site.