Heavy duty, old fashioned machines that don't have motherboards or other electronics that tend to burn out.  

Compare the budgets, where is the fat? 

I was burned out on the mortgage side, and made the transition full time  to RE. 

I'll quantify, suburbs of Rochester, NY in Monroe county east of the Genessee river, see 5-10+% appreciation for the next 4 years as measured Zillow home price index.When talking on historically the US was a-ok on kick-the-can economics, REMEMBER, 60 of the last 100 years Europe and Asia were in some state of burning rubble.

A reasonable person would assume if my rental burned down a couple months ago they would've left me on the hook for it all, meanwhile paid for the coverage all year long.

The neighbors also mentioned that "he is well known around the neighborhood for sleeping in vacant homes and has already burned down 3 of them." 

Nah, the contractors aren't upset, when you see someone's home burn down it changes your perception.

Title says most of it, my realtor has a relative with a duplex with burn damage in Oregon in the area I'm looking to buy my first househack.

But a cash out refi is good if you want to use those funds to buy a LTR. but you gotta find one quickish so you don't burn wasted capital 

If you're way off with these numbers you will go under, and then 2) getting burned by the contractor is a real thing.