I wanted to buy a property to BRRRR, but somebody in the real estate community told me this doesn't work for FHA and conventional loans.

I'm leaving out deductions for closing costs, maintenance, repairs etc.Say I buy a house for $300k, land value is $100k.

If they want to move up, why not sell their duplex and buy themselves a new home?

I would like to sell the property to the restaurant operator and they are willing to buy. i want to hold the paper on it to get the interest and what I'm hoping for is deferring the capital gains taxes until the balloon payment would be due in 5 years.

End of the day though you can still buy existing homes there for less than replacement costs and until that changes you will continue to have very little competition from new builds.

Instead of the list of addresses in the array, replace it with your actual addresses.

I am looking for some creative ideas or combination of loan types to put me in a position to buy land (maybe owner finance?)

Looking out for suggestions @Kaushik SarkarIf the equity in your properties is your only source for new investing, and the new property you are buying still cash-flow's with the cost of your borrowed money (from your properties), there is no reason to not use it as an investment vehicle.  

Even if the first property they buy works out as expected, most don't buy a second one. 

More folks will be able to obtain debt to buy a home.