Hey, does anyone have a referral or recommendation for a commercial appraiser licensed in CT? 

The HELOC replaces the mortgage in that case, giving you access to as much as 95% of the appraised value of the home.If you do it that way, you can plow all your money into the HELOC, hacking away at your mortgage while you're looking for a new job and a new home, and once you find both, you can pull the stored equity from the home and use it to purchase a new primary.Once the HELOC is in place, you can forever use it as a revolving line of credit to invest in new rentals.If you refinance, even at a better rate, the bank wins.

Needing to and seeing the economic benefit to doing so, are two different things here and while comps in your area are basically apartments and one other SFR, you're 'marketing' for quality renters, a little higher monthly rental yield and should you choose to cash out refinance (BRRRR)- your appraised value. 

The appraisal gap coverage covers the gap between the appraisal and total amount of the loan + down payment.

If you are looking at a private or hard money type loan, you might want to consider having a partner with experience because they look at the deal and your ability and experience to execute on that deal. 3) When you do a cash-out refi, they will appraise the house and you will get a % of that value.

If you can find a good enough deal, you can likely find a private lender that will finance it OR a commercial banker that will loan based on as appraised value. 

I am in the process of closing on a duplex and I am reviewing the home Appraisals and notice that living space square footage is 1809 sqft and not 2263 sqft as listed (454 sqft less).

Right now, I owe about 222K (VA Loan) on my home, and I had it recently appraised at 270K.

Appraises for ~$150k nowadays.

Plus the appraisal will use the old purchase price as a comp.