I've also seen people who squirrel money away and then lose it in the stock market or some other investment like strips or something . 

Whenever you subtract inventory and reduce the housing stock you get the adverse effects you'd expect.  

Ideally, I'd put more towards my principle faster if I have the cash.- Once I get 20% equity in the property, use another FHA loan to buy and live in another multi-family property then rent out both sides of my first duplex leading that to positive cash flow.- Repeat..Am I on the right track? 

It's only 3.5% down + closing costs and reserves.Work your day job, mow lawns, leaf cleanup, shovel snow, flip furniture, pick up night shifts waiting tables/bartending, stock shelves at home depot overnight if you hate talking to people or anything else.

But one argument in favor of refi is that you can get cash at a low interest rate to invest in stocks or other assets.

This is the portion of your payments that is applied to reducing the principle on the loan versus paid to the lender in interest.

No real strategy, just wasn't good at the stock market so I tried real estate.

I've never put a lot of stock in staging (never have and never will) or planting bushes out front.

The problem with Harris' approach is its on everything so without specifically stimulating the existing housing stock which just means it will push prices higher and ironically make housing less affordable. 

Additionally, absorption reached a four-year high in the latter half of 2023 (93.3 MW), pushing vacancy rates down to a four-year low of just 2.5%.Market Share and Preleasing: Hillsboro’s data center stock now represents 5.1% of the total primary market inventory.