Brandon Turner's Rental Property Investing book is an excellent primer to understanding the happy path for purchasing a property - however in this market it really comes down to having bulletproof assumptions on rents/taxes/R&M/etc. as with rates as high as they are/inventory as low as it is, there is less cushion in your returns if you analyze properties with bad assumptions.

It's tricky because we are doing the pre-lease inventory of the premises during *my* purchase final walkthrough lol.

I am looking into my first property and have been pre-approved for a renovation loan from a conventional lender.

Once the rehab was done I refinanced out of the private loan into a conventional loan as a primary residence.

Dan, Investment HELOCS are extremely hard to achieve considering they are not DSCR underwrites. they are more traditional conventional qualifications.

Inventory situation is another key element.

I own a home currently with a conventional loan.

Keep in mind that this is also a very tough time to be entering the market as an agent because the inventory is so low.  

There are conventional strategies and unconventional strategies to get started in real estate. 

If they are CF positive then they will not cohnt against your DTI but will improve it...that's standard conventional guidelines barring a few exceptions.