I’ve gotten great appreciation in SD, but I’m setting my sights on a more affordable market now so I can scale faster - Las Vegas.

Now a 25,000 sq ft mansion with the best views in Arizona and close to Sedona and all of the numerous sights, adventures, and wine county that northern AZ and the Verde Valley have to offer.

If you can rent your side for $1000-1200 then you're losing income on the $850 tenants.

I would never buy a property sight unseen, especially a multi family property.

Doubt that you would lose money by getting an appraisal ordered, all it can do is help.

Skirting the RESPA rules is a felony and if a lender is found to be committing occupancy fraud, they could lose their business and the borrower could be fined or imprisoned or bothNot saying you're committing fraud. 

But yeah, because my house shouldn't all the sudden lose value, if the market changes, I feel like it's less risky than a normal cash out refinance

Once you lose your fear of vacancy, it is easy to deny bad applicants. 

The one downside is that population loss is a warning sign...if you are a long-term investor you could lose tens of thousands in appreciation...but you still have debt paydown and equity build...and once that 6-unit is paid off and fully occupied the number will be dreamy.I think the more important question is the strength of your team...mainly your property manager.One thing you should consider is working with housing choice voucher tenants...my city is 80,000 units short of demand right now...this trend is growing across the country quickly....a waitlist for tenants paying market rents can be a very good thing in a declining city

This will give you highest upside but there are also risks of losing capital should the stock market go down.