Be very professional in your presentation of the information and avoid trying to influence or oversell items. 

It is a huge boost for anyone who makes a lot of money, but does not have strong credit.

If you’re in scaling mode rent increases are the best way to boost value, refi and scale/stack.

I have zero retirement savings and am eager to start building a passive-income portfolio so I am not a burden to my child.One of my biggest hurdles is that I need to boost my income so that in the bank's eyes I can afford the mortgage payment BEFORE collecting any rent.

There is no right answer here, but your decision should be influenced as much by your business plan as it will be by anything else.

Your construction plan will likely be influenced by how many vacancies you have, and if you want to truly use construction financing, it is unlikely that you will be able to complete a project in one year on the south side if you don't have a large amount of vacant units. 

Owner-occupied loans are a fantastic way to reduce your capital invested and boost CoC but don't expect to refi into an investment loan after only a year unless you put significant work into the property.

What part of the country are you in as that influences this discussion.

So if you find something that a bank is willing to lend on, it will likely be tougher to boost the ARV enough to make it a true BRRRR.2 - if you finance up front AND refi, you pay financing / closing costs twice. 

Make sure it’s a demographic you want as tenants, because to some extent the tenants you will be able to  attract will be influenced by the general neighborhood.