How can I fully utilize equity in my rental properties? 

The cap ex and vacancy rates are 5%, and 6% for repairs, which totals $176.The realtor informed me that this has been rented by grad students for $1100-$1300/month plus utilities.

This is pretty common on tax sale properties.   

I drive for dollars occasionally, but I don't believe it is yielding enough results as small multi's are not very common in my target areas.  

.- First off, you have a very under utilized bike path that goes through Malden and I think that bike paths are one of the main attractions for hipsters. 

I found one called ( Rainbow Knolls) old subdivision platted in the 20s but because it was under one common ownership  ( 104 lots) assessor on the assessors plat map showed it as a 15 acre tract.. we made an offer like it was one building lot.. then we got our HML to put 104 individual loans on each lot to the tune of 3k per lot we used that 300k to build all the roads and infrastructure.. we recorded each loan individually which caused the assessor to reestablish the plat. without having to go through the platting and land use .. planners did not like it I can tell you.. but now a days out west this is quite common and there are easier ways to do this.. in Oregon for instance they call it a lot confirmation.. there are all sorts of shadow lots lying underneath lots in the city.. takes 60 days and a few hundred bucks and a current survey and you can split lots as long as there is a shadow plat that was recorded back around the turn of the century. 

I paid the taxes, insurance, utilities, landscaping, etc.

In my experience, the most common issue is noise between levels.

After being in the real estate business for the past 40 yearsI've discoverer one common trait of all successful investors.  

I would like to make sure I have all my ducks in a row and am utilizing available funds for best case scenario.