When buying a property and the exit is to refinance over and over, what is the best balance to have when it comes to cashflow and using the NOI to improve the property to grab more money at the refinance ?

Hello,we've been looking to buy our first property in Missoula, MT and use it as principal residential and maybe rent a unit or build and ADU to get some income to help.The inventory seems really low, people are asking too much for what they are selling, and so far realtors don't seem to be positive about the situation.

If you are remote, Oakland gives you a lot of inventory with great lifestyle (food, accessibility, etc) and a bette price, but the schools are lackluster (although changing).We did the live-above-tenants thing for a year, and enjoyed it because our tenants were incredible but candidly were ready to move. 

I'm wondering what improvements would you guys consider the most important and which improvements increase the house value the most in percentage terms?

What is more important is what you can do with the property by making small improvements and increasing the rent.Below is an example of the potential profits for a 10-unit property.

Get to know what your months of inventory is for your market.

So I ripped out the pad, installed new rebar properly, poured concrete and  built 2 more bedrooms/large family room/full bath and laundry room. 1209 SF area improvement

That's improves your overall cash flow by paying less for your own housing.

Available rental inventory far exceeds demand. 

However, competition is unbelievably intense at the moment with very little inventory (https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/...).