I am looking forward to the knowledge I will gain through the individuals and information on this website. 

What worries me is that if I were to sell today for market value, the profit would be considered the difference between my new cost basis (which is now a decent bit lower than actual payoff) and sales price and I could very well end up paying money to sell, even when at first glance, there appears to be a gain. 

With a great team, we can limit your spending costs together and help gain financial and/or rehab success.

I'm looking at selling my personal residence at the two year mark so I won't have capital gains.

However, even if the general area population is stable, specific sub-areas could be losing or gaining population.

Pretty basic question: what is the best way to model appreciation gains in a long-term multifamily analysis if multifamily values are based on NOI and cap rate? 

Start small to gain experience.  

I joined BP to gain as much knowledge as I can about real estate investing. 

The 30-60k profit would have had significantly less long term value than preserving the gains, along with getting principle pay down, cash flow and also slowly build up more annuities.

Also be aware of the tax implications (tax owed on gains if you sell, depreciation's impact sheltering your income if you hold, and the impact of interest expense deduction if you take out loans).If my sister asked me this question, I would recommend taking a mortgage on the current property now, then taking time to find an additional property to buy.