I’m not suggesting doing this for house you will sell but if you’re gonna rent, you should be fine.

The response was always like, "We don't really fix things until they're broken and everything is fine." 

Your idea of purchasing and then refinancing with a heloc is perfectly fine. 

But a couple of cameras streamed to the building website with the threat of $$$ fines made everyone behave just a little bit better.

Worked out fine. 

Whereas, in a local REI meeting teaching out wholesaling the instructor told us specific municipalities not to put out bandit signs or you will get fined.

You may be fine, you may be not.  

if you want to self-manage, that's fine. 

They seem fine.

You could go with a cash-out refinance to pull out funds, but you'd be sitting on those funds for a bit if you aren't looking to purchase a new property until next year which isn't ideal.If you aren't looking to pull money out on this one then you would be fine.