My question is, "Are there hard money or private lenders who will finance raw land acquisitions and, if so, is it typical to borrow $25-$50K, or does it need to be much higher?" 

@Jared Smith  I am a lender this is the formula we us to qualify a borrow.  

A lot of lenders won't let you borrow funds for those two things. 

Scam.On a side note...most lenders require borrowers to have net worth equal to or greater than the loan amount too.

They will however affect the price of money being borrowed for the purposes of making  improvements to a house, to hopefully justify the cost of the money needed to increase the  value of the.....see now were stuck in a circle....exactly where lenders and re agents want us

Which I get, that you can take cash flow and turn that into deposits for future investments.I don't quite understand buying homes using home equity loans, but it really sounds like if you owe X on your house and your house is worth Y you can borrow an amount equalled to the difference. 

Hard money lenders don't typically have terms offered to them, they get the borrower's profile and present them with the terms that fit that profile so you could also call them pretending to be a borrower and tell them about you and see what terms they would normally give you as well.

From my perspective I say "Borrow as much as you can for as long as you can." 

I am considering a cash-out refinance to borrow an additional $200k for the down payment on a duplex.

I’m supposed to borrow the down payment and in a year do a cash out refinance to pay back the down payment loan with interest.