Obviously, you should work with a good agent, lender, and home inspector to assist with each phase to ensure you are getting the best deal.

@Wale Lawal is the top investor agent in Houston

You can view homes with the help of a buyer's agent without any down payment required.

@Chris Seveney - Chris I know you know this, but sharing this for a lot of less experienced investors out there. 

Amateur investor/full time agent here. 

I would love to hear from other more experienced in the field about alternative ways to financing that I should consider besides the HELOC, maybe also hear from investors on how the process of bringing investors onboard works.

For example, we've recently taken over marketing internally because the property management company was not experienced enough in using the newer advertising methods we need to pursue.

.- Working a W2 as a firefighter, posting and consuming content- Leaving my W2 to dive deep into real estate investing and working as an agent... and still watching/posting content all while business was ok - Deleting social media apps (one have one on my phone that I use 10 minutes or less a day), diving deep into building my business and skills which have drastically increased due to pure focus and increasing my business significantly- moral of the story... focus on the things you need to do in business (dollar productive activities) and life experiences while reducing consumption will increase your success  

I'm an investor and an agent in this area and if you ever want to chat about the market or investing, I'm happy to do so.

If I had applied for permits when work was done I would have experienced the same permit process issues.