When you buy a property at a time, the risk from the uncertainty is small.

Since the HELOC was used for a business use (renovating the rental) you can deduct the loan interest against that rental using the interest tracing rules found in §1.163-10T. 

This was the single largest contributor to the significant under performance of the investment.

The one Brandon Turner wrote about doubling your portfolio every year is also good but I cant remember the name off the top of my head. 

Happy to send over some resources on why Columbus is a great real estate market to invest in.

As mentioned the taxpayer must remain the same.

It's so important to take action and remember that the best time to invest in real estate was yesterday, the second best time to invest is today!

It sounds like you are overly confident in your Excel spreadsheets..... 

Hi Kevin, welcome to the community! 

A lot of lenders used to apply 35% for expenses, but in the last several years, the numbers for supplies, labor, utilities, taxes, etc… have increased significantly.Also take into account the age, occupancy and how has the property been maintained, this will affect the expenses too