When I say a lender, I mean a local lender that you can go to a physical office and talk to them.  

Let's say you have a $100k mortgage with a $1000 P&I mortgage payment (just to make the numbers easier) and have $100k in cash in the bank.Scenario #1 - Keep the cash in the bank and pay the mortgage regularlyYou will have $100k liquid cash to use for whatever you wish, earning probably ~$10 - $15 in interest per year for a net return of 0.00000000001% (sarcasm, but it might as well be 0% because the returns are garbage).You will continue to make the $1000 monthly payment, part of which goes towards interest and is partially lost (partially because you can write mortgage interest off).Scenario #2 - Refinance the home with a HELOCYou still have the same $100k loan in the beginning, but instead of having it as a fixed 30 year, it's a variable rate interest only.  

Also how did you go about investing in these out of state properties without physically being there, I was looking to be a little more hands on for my first couple of rental properties , I just want to get my first deal out of the way

I do self manage my properties, outsource all the physical labor tasks.

Also, insurance did NOT cover it because the sewer line that needed repair was not directly under the physical home, but rather on the front and side lawn area.This work was done back in 2013. 

Time management (balancing between the full-time job and out if state REI) : Sh­all we fly out the first time to see the property and make an offer, and then fly out a 2nd time to do physical inspection if the offer is accepted, a 3rd time to get contrac­tor quotes and start the repair needed, get property managem­ent in place after the closing?

In the midst of putting together a property management company in NJ and am wondering what other PM's generally do.I have always been a stickler for duplicate documentation in both physical folders as well as on servers/ cloud.  

Since I originally posted that I've found some people I think well be doing good things with in the very near future.

I'm presuming you are referring to the geographical area where I can physically inspect properties and make decisions on lending?

That was just for a general physical inspection, no special trades.