I have the opportunity to purchase 16 lots that are zoned for Duplexes.

Would it be better to purchase this for the appreciation to be able to refinance in two years to pull the equity and move into the next property and have this for tenants to pay off? 

Often a good place to learn is the county websites that often have information about the sale and the rules.

My advise is to purchase a property and not worry about buying at a massive discount.

The tricky part to this transaction is the house was just purchased this year with a VA loan, so there is no equity.

I purchased the unit for 250K and I put about 25K into the place.The rents in the area for these type of units go for around 3K, maybe a bit more, leaving me about $400+ a month in profit after the mortgage and HOA.

My wife and I purchased our first rental property here in Maui in June of 2023 to use as an STR as it was a consistent market, numbers worked, and we live 5 minutes away from the property so self-managing made sense! 

"They will take your money and the card that you have on file to purchase your leads cannot be removed" makes us sound like we stole your card information to scam you, which just feels unfair to me. 

Then they sell as many as they can at top dollar until something changes, then they start discounting and starting 'Fire sales" which hurts the previously purchased homes since the last few get sold for less.

We have ~$4mm in equity in the downleg and plan to leverage to $8-10mm for an upleg purchase.