NJ/NY is not a cash flow investment market in most parts so you have to buy different than what you might read in most forums.

I would greatly appreciate any tips, recommendations, or cautionary tales you can share based on your own experiences.Specifically, I'm interested in learning about different creative financing methods, potential pitfalls to watch out for, and any legal or financial considerations that I should be aware of before proceeding. 

If you were to refinance, would you be cash flow positive?

Is this a Single Family Rental - it can work for sure to start with negative cash flow - but this is a very very risky strategy - especially if there aren't other considerations like tax benefits on a larger portfolio or anything else I'm missing

Not to mention for the cash flow investor housing will be key of course..

Will it cash flow?

Then will help me renovate to maximize cash flow or flip for a profit.

Seems the best options are going to be aggressively attack my principle to increase equity so that i can open up a HELOC to put a down payment on another home (a way better deal) in order to rent it out and use the passive income to add to my paying down my mortgage before doing a rate-term refinance to prepare my home to cash flow when I’m ready to rent it out. 

Although I prefer multi-family because it cash flows better.

Cash flow (in my portfolio as a whole) covers my expenses.