I would say for most people, the 1st position heloc is no a good bet, especially if you have a 1st mortgage rate of less than 5%.Using this strategy with a 2nd position heloc can be just as powerful, so you can have your cake and eat it too!

One capex issue or tenant turnover is going to eat up years of "cashflow".I would advise you to work on getting a smaller number of high quality units rather than scaling to 20.

They eat where they want.  

Well that's what you did, you announced your "hungry" and "who's got something good to eat for me to buy"Having commanding market intelligence is absolutely necessary. 

Some people make 4x the rent but squander their income on eating out, drinking, car payments, etc.

They would offer a more hands free approach, but eat up the profit in return.

If they move soon, one month vacancy would eat away any savings of a hard "no" and it's wintertime (here) where vacancy is harder to fill...I'd at least discuss with the tenant and have someone do a bid to find out what it even costs for this home.

Eats up time and money getting rid of a bad tenant (not to mention possible property damage). 

Most times when people look into it, they decide to just eat their mistake because lawyers usually want a big retainer and legal fees add up quickly with no guarantee of success. 

And even if the tenants chooses to stay in your property for 2yrs, the damage they may cause will eat away all of your cash flow and leave you potentially upside down.