Real estate is an excellent avenue to help you achieve those goals, especially since it can create both passive income and long-term wealth.

After the HELOC, it would drop down to about $450 per month.My goal is long term equity and appreciation, and not cash flow.

My mother is a RE agent back home in California (30+ years), I have one rental property in Virginia Beach, and I'm mostly interested in BRRRRs, flips, and long/medium-term multifamily properties.

Using a HELOC or home equity loan on your personal home could be a good option, especially if you can secure a low interest rate and manageable terms.

a lot of people will poo poo this, but I also live in a market where cash flow is low, property taxes are high and properties are expensive (which is a relative term).

As @Brett Synicky suggested, keep it simple, as a sole proprietorship.You are also not considering that you will have to pay $800 per year and per LLC to your greedy state.In short, get some professional advice instead of TikTok advice.

There may be requirements to cover the trash service depending on the town.My first commercial loan was 30% down, 20 year term (adjusting after the first 5 years). 

We are now doing short term rentals but we're thinking about changing to a small wedding venue. 

What about rate and term refinancing?

The amount of equity I call pull is less than the cash I have but not significantly less.When doing this analysis it struck me that it may not be worth using a HELOC for the simple fact that the interest rate is ~9%* while the funds in my high yield account are only yielding ~5%*.