My name is Shea And In anxious to start and begin in Realestate investing, Creating Positive Cash Flow but most importantly building wealth & finacial freedom, But first want to Master the Math and Analysis of Properties.

Getting that equity out and putting it to work for you is an amazing idea.

Anywhere you have low lying areas close to water you're going to have an added carrying cost for flood insurance (unless 100% equity).  

You get a referral like you did from your realtor and you're borrowing his or her social equity with that contractor, then I can see the contractor doing a one off.

I would like to "sell high" within next few months and use the equity to purchase multiple out of state cash-flowing properties.  

This is what I've seen with unemployed. 1) there aren't many here that are 2) most max out the equity before thinking of selling so lots are either upside down or break even.It would seem the unemployed space would work best for subject to deals (take over the payments). 

I have built a retirement account of roughly 70k and have approximately 15k-25k in equity in my house currently.  

There are 3 ways to create returns on rentals: buy with equity in place, benefit from appreciation, and cash flow.

The property would have to have some kind equity or be so upside down the bank would do a short sale otherwise why would the owner sell.If you have a way of identifying the property I would give it a try but don't be surprised if you have to kiss 100 frogs to find the prince.

Just picking only multis doesn't always guarantee success, and for me  I'd MUCH rather prefer a balanced portfolio - Multis for high cashflow, singles for equity and liquidity.