If you know what an "average" deal looks like then pull the trigger on one that looks above average.

ask them for recent permit pulls in the county and go look them up to verify activity. you can also call the local building department to verify their license and recent activity. if you don't see any run for the hills. 

As far as pulling equity from your duplex - totally doable!

In our experience that is what carries the day along with the area and the STR restrictions or lack thereof(a whole other conversation) that deems the valuations.Airbnb and VRBO have thought of this and are way ahead of it, we scaled quickly using these platforms for two high end STR that book out great, once we established that, we created a direct book website and are slowly pulling our repeats from that.

But, you will have increased the value of the property, allowing you to pull cash out for your next deal.

To pull this off, you may want to use social media platforms to find your next great deal.But how do you utilize these platforms to find real estate sellers who are motivated to work with you?

@Dan KeefeDid you pull data from BP on rents too?

...and you continue to contradict yourself.Do yourself a favor and follow instructions here: pull up an amortization schedule in your favorite tool. 

I’m all for value-add and if you need to pull cash out to get another deal that makes a higher return then how much you pay for it, sure, but I think you would be better off selling it and starting over.

We do not penalize people for pulling their docs out if they change their minds after submitting their docs.