Ideally I would also like to find a BRRRR property, but they are few and far between here and often if you're not quick will get bid up quickly.

Insurance, banking, e-comm fulfillment, apparel are all well represented.

Ideally, go through and fix stuff before people move in.I do small jobs myself, not as much to save money, but also to get things fixed faster.

My ideal would be to have rent be roughly $2,500 a month or $2,000 a month.

I was able to find a management company in the area that could help but sounds like having someone on the property would ideal too so going to dig into that a bit more.

Since you have probably filed a tax return the bank will look at your schedule E to see if you are breaking even on your rental property.Guidelines are always changing so I recommend you reach out to a local lender.

I'd want to be in towns with 50K people or more, ideally. 

Additionally, if the seller has previous Schedule C/E and you write a letter to the underwriter that you are planning on continuing the same business model, it's possible they will consider it. 

That would leave us with around $70k liquid cash.We rent an apartment month-to-month until we find a good duplex to purchase (ideally within 1 year).We house-hack the duplex until we accumulate enough cash to buy a SFH for ourselves (3-5 years).We retain ownership of the duplex and rent out both units.In my mind, this approach could "get the ball rolling", considering we can't afford to buy an investment property with our current circumstances, nor would we be able to for many years.What would you do if you were in the same boat?

This was for a regular refinancing option - I did not ask about a cashout option (I would assume they are higher).If I would do a cashout option, I would ideally like to use the money for purchasing a new rental property.