As far as rate is concerned, you can usually go about two points over the current rate (less closing costs for a seller financed deal so there is no real expense there) You need to make sure the borrower can cover that.

Being in Washington State, where properties are expensive and good deals are scarce, I see this as a potential opportunity to jump into my first real estate investment.

another expensive area ;-)The DMV has more 2-4 families, so I checked out a few.

In my opinion, Dallas represents more upside with lower risk, and is less expensive than Houston.

I’m looking for a cash out refi for higher than 80% LTV due to the expenses that I’ve already put into rehabbing the property.

Vacancy is VERY expensive and can destroy returns, especially if you have to reduce rents anyways. 

However, I know building can be very expensive and time-consuming.

I also use their virtual credit cards which enables me to assign a card to a specific person, like the cleaner for my STR for example, so when she runs a charge, it automatically drops into the right account in terms of categorizing my expenses.

Cash flow seems like the obvious one but I'm struggling with the concept of building equity at expense of cash flow. 

Debt is less expensive than equity.