Hi Justin - It sounds like your Airbnb is performing really well, especially considering your initial intent for the property.

It's more important than doing individual property analysis, because when you do a proper market analysis, you are analyzing ALL of the properties in any market(s) at the same time.Now, one of the analysis "pitfalls" is not understanding what defines a market, or more importantly, a Micro-market.Another problem is focusing on one strategy, and trying to fit each market/property. 

Only about $3k was spent to make upgrades and improvements to the property.

I found a property on an auction site that I'd like to bid on.

Showing a property while it’s occupied is almost never positive.

My issue is properties have appreciated a lot since the last one.

If you cash out equity in a property, you are "borrowing" that money from the lender.

In fact, it is usually an automatic no deal unless you are putting 50-60% down for an investment property, but at that point, it wouldn't be worth putting that much cash down on an investment property where you can get much better returns in markets such as Denver. 

If you prefer to maintain privacy and don’t want your tenants to know you are the property owner, I often recommend a two-entity strategy.

We also have relatively low expenses (personal expenses, mortgage/escrow on other rental property, and escrow on current property) that are around ~$120k/year.