As a generic advice:  I would recommend paying off any credit card debt, or high loans. 

Meetups are the best confidence supplement to books and podcasts in the world.

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? 

I should have also added that the reason I am pulled towards real estate as a wealth generating mechanism (I.e. the appreciation aspect) is that I bought my first house with ~$20K of my own money in Baltimore (supplemented with 6K of grants), bought at the right time and did a little fixing it up, used the proceeds from sale of Baltimore home to get into the lower end of the market in quickly appreciating Seattle.

Property taxes and insurance can vary wildly depending on the location in SC - there really isn't a rule of thumb or generic figure that can be used. 

The lessons you've learned will help you do better.Here's some generic beginner advice to maybe fill in some educational holes.1.

End goal is a bit different though since I am looking to supplement retirement income with cashflow which is 20-25 years out. 

Generically it is difficult for the Borrower or other junior interested parties to show they have damage that is improper above the implications of the security instrument being an agreement to be able to use the property to recover said funds which also means the property becomes Mortgagee's if no bidder exceeds the minimal bid.

Supplemental data is also provided, such as equal-weight and net of fee returns, for informationalpurposes and additional analysis.

i know that's generic... but that's the case.sorry these answers are so general, do you have more background you can share?