Those that respond “$0” or something ridiculous, you can request income documentation from them to justify.Don’t be afraid to share with them how much your property taxes & Insurance increased and that YOU cannot afford to absorb them.ALWAYS get an increase or something of value annually when rents are increasing or tenants will start thinking they should never have an increase, making future increases that much more difficult to negotiate.

Would you prefer they change their policies just to fill your rental quicker and then increase your risk of losses?

Charlotte is loaded with inventory are you sure this new build at Max cost is worth the headache versus a home selling for less that you can renovate yourself and increase the ARV?

@Kenneth Johnson, as eager as you are to get started, the best thing you can do it increase your earnings.  

I do not plan on paying interest on the HELOC for more than 2-3 months, so I guess the better question is will my portfolio benefit from acquiring a 4th property by leveraging a cash flowing LTR and therefore increasing the interest rate and lowering the cash flow on that property?

My thesis was that this would lead to increased investment in the surrounding neighborhood and home values would increase.

I will be increasing my savings amount to reflect as well.

Its just outside of their normal scope of work and it only increases their liability.

Increase supply (or at least encourage development), and the prices will eventually come down (as we've seen in other large cities like Austin where the demand boom was followed by a supply boom - and now both sale prices and rents have gone down). 

If not feasible, consider increasing rent, reducing purchase price, incorporating future benefits, or targeting multifamily properties.