My plan is to live in the upper unit and do cleaning and updating, while the lower unit needs very minimal work.

A "good" loan is one that allows you to accomplish your goals while minimizing the risk, GIVEN your personal financial situation (cash+credit) and experience.

By coming in w/ minimal down you'll see a much higher return on your investment due to appreciation.

The new construction would be easy to manage (little maintenance) and I should be able to build a lot of equity into the project if I acted as the GC.Option 4: Setting aside 50-75k for capital improvements in the properties that I'm keeping, then refinancing one or more if I need to raise cash for one of the above strategies.I should mention that I prefer to use cash, or at least minimal leverage.

I was curious to see where rates are now and if getting closer to 3.0% is feasible with minimal closing costs.

It is not expense typically, but as @Michael Plaks states it appears your taxable gain is minimal and the cost of the exchange would be about the same.

The 3-4 family would then become a rental that we would ultimately hold long term.The other 2 units we would clean up and do minimal work to initially and when the first round of tenants leave, renovate/upgrade the other units as they become vacant to hopefully increase the rents.I had been researching single family options prior to COVID and am starting my research on multifamily and hoping you guys can point me in the right direction to save some time on a couple of things.

It was painless and I got in done in about 3 weeks with minimal paperwork.

I have 0 direct experience, 0 RE-specific connections, and minimal deployable capital.

Any tips on minor touch up to spruce it up with minimal spend ?