Our motivated seller leads go through a 2-step process: (1) they enter our digital funnel and fill out a form to be contacted about receiving a cash offer; (2) we then phone-screen the homeowner to extract additional information.

I'd rather live in an area where everyone can agree that if given an alternative, that kind of result does not benefit ANYONE (except perhaps the landlord who extracted value from the community for years and years). 

For instance:At 0°F, a 36,000 BTU heat pump might still deliver close to its full capacity, around 37,000 BTUs.At -4°F, the capacity might decrease slightly to about 35,800 BTUs.At -13°F, the capacity could further drop to around 32,000 BTUs.At -22°F, you might only get about 28,000 BTUs.This reduction in capacity occurs because, as the outdoor temperature decreases, the heat pump has to work harder to extract heat from the air, which becomes more challenging as it gets colder.

My goal is to move out of this duplex eventually in a few years and rent the other side out to extract the most cash flow possible.

You can also extract it from public records.

If you're looking to extract more than a few grand, you're looking for too much.

I believe it's because many landlords want to passively extract money for communities and don’t want to contribute their pro-rata share towards advocating for the neighborhood.

Hire a talented manager and make sure that you're extracting maximum revenue from the remaining holdings. 

If so, sometimes condos can be challenging as investor owners often don't want to do upgrades and updates, many just want to run the property into the ground and extract as much cash as they can get today, without thought to the future.   

One of the snags I see with your plan is taking forever to get enough equity to extract for a down payment on a home in California.