Having a trusted team in place can make or break deals as you scale and face unexpected challenges. 

If you are very conservative purchase a fixer upper so you can force equity and hopefully have a low enough payment so that you can LTR the property or even sell for profit should the STR avenue not work. 

I'm under contract for a nice double and was hoping to use part of the money for my portion of the down payment.

I asked the GC as part of the conditional last $20k payment to transfer the title to me after his mortgage note default since I'd paid him $40k in good faith for work reportedly completed but needed rework.3.)

No monthly payment.

Work on getting a down payment saved up while managing your townhomes.

You then draw your HELOC balance as the down payment for the flip.  

Key Deal Points:Loan Amount: $88,000Lien Position: 1st position Purchase Price: $120,000Appraised Value: $250,000Interest Rate/Return: 11% annual returnTerm: 5-year balloon (meaning the entire principal and interest must be paid at the end of the term)LTV ratio: 35.2%---Licensed Lending company for contractsRMLO package completed on buyersServicing company for payment

No, only after missing significant payments then you could suffer a forced sale.     

For down payment, plan to need 30-40%.