Want to hear your advise on how much the rent should be increase for such a good tenant.

I did do a fair bit of remodeling myself while I lived there.Best purchase we will probably ever make since it was 5k down for 160k duplex (worth 230k now after 10k or so in remodeling and increased rents) and cash flow of $800-900/month now!

Or just ask them what the biggest increases to value would be on the property and how much each would add, whether they can be done individually (sometimes doing one thing on a list won't improve the value as much as the whole list).  

With a bigger down payment (25%) your cash flow will increase some.

I wanted to put this out there as a contest to ramp up responses and ideas for creative financing approaches to see who can help me in figuring how best to structure the deal to minimize my risk, increase learning opportunities during the process, and maximize returns in light of minimizing risk.

So you have increased your equity position and have more investable cash than you started with. 

Personally, I suspect the time to invest in multi family is behind us for now (wait till next recession) 5 or 6 % cap rates and you have work to do and taxes to pay doesn't sound that interesting when I can get near 5% yields on high yield muni bonds-no taxes and no work.Consider Kitsap county/Bremerton/port orchard for better deals though even there prices have increased meaningfully.

My understanding of the strategy is that you would find a good investment property, increase its value and stabilize it, and then refinance.Pulling out cash from your primary residence tax-free can be great, as long as you are getting a better return than the additional interest you are paying.

Escalation offer example below:SPECIAL STIPULATIONS: The following Special Stipulations, if conflicting with any exhibit, addendum, or preceding paragraph (including any changes thereto made by the parties), shall control:Buyer's purchase price offer is $x with $x Seller's Contribution at closing; however, if Seller receives one or more higher NET offers before this offer is accepted, then this offer is increased by $x above the other acceptable offer up to $x.

I can't represent myself because I don't have a license and I don't really want to increase the closing costs by introducing an agent to the mix.