My GC primed and painted over them a few times thinking they were just old, stubborn stains that needed extra product, but they kept coming back after each rainfall.I hired a water intrusion detection company to help me pinpoint the problem - they said the new roof seemed solid and that based on infrared and temperature readings, the moisture is coming in from the partition walls.

When I want to refinance, I just look for a lender and vet them and analyze their loan products. 

It's very possible your broker is limited in the products they have available for you.

Furthermore if agents were paid on a fixed hourly scale then the thing driving that rate would be the quality of the product they produced.

The only way to avoid them is to put more money down or you need a lender that offers their own product. 

This is the best solution I've seen (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075K6PHJ9/ref=as_li_tl?

Elwin, in general, HELOCS are second lien position products.

I specialize in single family homes in middle class neighborhoods , working people providing a high quality product for tenants that stay for avg. 5-10 years.   

This is generally going to be a loan product for a long term buy and hold property. 

you keep saying "high ROI returns" without any data to back it up. and I have a couple of 3 bedroom beach properties and I dont always get $190 a night. i mean, good for you, but it seems like you are coming on here trying to sell a product rather than just discussing it.