STR to LTR - is it possible?

[Kristin Solbach]

First time investor here that is feeling pretty stuck.. we want to get started in one way or the other with lot of different approaches and advice out there. We hired a tax advisor and were told to get an STR this year to help offset our taxes with the STR loophole... One Cost Segregation Study is included in our package with the Tax team as well and the tax savings would actually help us to get started investing of course. We only have 30-40K down payment and are hesitant about 2 things:

1) Investing into a property purely for STR... we would want to ensure it can still pay for itself as an LTR if need be PLUS ideally we would not invest more than 350-400K. Is there a market out there in which this could work?

2) Using our HELOC to supplement the down payment.. we do have some bonus payments coming at the end of the year we could pay it down plus the tax savings could help us pay it off, so maybe it would be worth it in the end?

Has anyone invested in STR for the loophole reason? Any advice? Any good and bad experiences welcome. 
Thanks a million, Kristin