I'm new to the investing world and am looking to utilize some home equity to make a purchase by end of year.

You may need to hire someone with a thermal camera to find the actual source of the water.Otherwise, everyone will have their opinion and suggest an expensive repair that wastes your money.

I am originally from UK and after 6 years I now qualify for funding and I am wanting to house hack a multi family (seems like a cheat code as it isn't an option on a residential mortgage in the UK) but the issue i am finding is the low inventory in my area (6 listings within 20 mile radius of Danville VA) and nothing that i think i can make cashflow well / or seems like it would rent to a decent caliber of tenant. 

I've read all the books that assume i automatically know people with money.

To enhance its appeal, consider staging the property or making minor renovations to modernize it.

If the property is bleeding money every year from repairs, maintenance, or turn over you'll never get ahead.You can tap equity with a HELOC (challenging right now), cash-out refinance into a new loan (much higher rates), 1031 exchange, or sell (tax hit) but the numbers and property condition need to guide this decision.

Make sure you take advantage of the various tools & calculators that BP offers.

With BRRRR, most hard money lenders offer 85% LTC and you can do the math from there.

I will definitely need to make another call to confirm.

@Anthony Wick yeah I wish tenant estoppel was unnecessary but it just makes it easier if anything ever were to be in dispute, especially in my state.