A purchase in San Diego 10 years ago would have outstanding cash flow if no value was extracted. 

That is my plan, but although they know our current net worth, I don't let my kids plan on this - I tell them my plan is to extract value from every dollar of our net worth, party to death and die with exactly zero net worth!

That said, expect to deal with a fair amount of fluff leads.The two best strategies I’ve found are inbound methods: direct mail and Google Ads.Direct mail can be expensive, but it can also yield highly discounted properties.Google Ads, on the other hand, doesn’t require data extraction like calls, direct mail, or texting.

I'm imagining a strategy where you refi upwards every year, extracting equity, and this basically causes your loan payments to keep pace with annually rising rent payments.Conservatively, suppose your lenders require 25% down/equity, and your property appreciates at 4%/year.

Some municipalities post a ton of data online which you can sort and extract for mailings.

Would it make sense to invest in improving my home, then refinance with a bank to extract the created equity, and then use that money to purchase a rental property?

However if I do a BRRRR I can achieve infinite return by extracting all of my investment.

Unfortunately, they generally have not set up the tools needed to extract the information (or they don't provide public access to them) needed.

After closing on this deal, I like to reflect and extract lessons that I’ve learnt along the way.

Nowadays, most of my business is by referral, however I do work weird lists and extract further data to create proprietary lists for my own use.