Would using a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) be a good move?

Side tip, if you decide to close without using a agent (not usually a good idea in a new market) then you need to 100% get an inspection (using your own inspector, not the listing agents) and be there during the inspection, title insurance (as always), and have a pre-existing relationship with a property manager.

I’m trying to get loan for my first rental investment and I was wondering does anybody have experience using a Mortgage broker that service the Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Springfield Ohio areas?

It takes a lot of money to operate a rental as things break and wear out, tenant issues, unexpected crap that comes out of nowhere… in my experience it takes $300-500/month minimum in capex budget alone and a lot of people only budget $100 or less because they’re using a spreadsheet that recommends a percentage of 5-10% of rent and the rent is too low for that number to be high enough. 

I recommend using a property manager since you are investing out of state (OOS). 

Prior to this, I was looking into purchasing a piece of land and building a home using a New Construction VA loan.

As for Market knowledge where would you recommend using as a search engine?

It is similar to using a private lender to get in the game.

You further implied using a hard money lender - why?

You may finance this using a DSCR loan if this is your investment property.