I had mold in some cabinets below my sink and it ended up being significantly cheaper to just replace all of the cabinets.

Then of course, you are also hoping for appreciation.While it is attractive to not have to worry about cap-ex for a few years, many maintenance issues are usualy tenant-caused, so there may still be ongoing issues & expenses needing attention.Another option may be to buy an existing cheaper property, that's still in overall good shape.

With hard money loans being around 2 points and 12% it would be cheaper to use a HELOC to pay cash for the property and would not need to pay the points.

No problem, we'll look for smaller, cheaper houses. 

Finding another contractor, cutting costs somewhere in the job, and finding cheaper money (doing it all cash). 

Duplex can always add additional units via the ADU laws. 8) Related to number 1, purchasing a property with an existing ADU is cheaper than buying a property and adding an ADU.

you said:"Keep ~200K and try to buy some cash flowing rentals in a much cheaper out of state market.

gotcha things are just much cheaper in Texas when it comes to infrastructure then what we deal with..

It would probably be cheaper to have materials dropped on the lot from above by a CH53 than to have them carried in lol.

it typically takes a few years just to recover the closing costs. those are the types of things that get sugarcoated / ignored and they shouldn't be.3 separate recent sources show that it is cheaper to rent than buy at high LTV in virtually every market.