I would underwrite buyers based on stability of income, financial payment history & ability to pay.

To start your journey, I recommend focusing on building your network by joining meetups and engaging in online forums, while narrowing down your first investment based on your budget, market, and goals.

I was asking with the assumption that I can at least manage the property myself, but based on the documentation they provided it seems like not if I don't have a broker license myself... 

Tiertiary markets can get you to 1% rules on paper but then it'll all be based on demand and tenant class.

Generally yes a HELOC will go off your personal finances so qualifying is generally based on your income, liabilities, and credit. 

I would need to consult tax consultant for this however I expect to reduce my effective costs by ~$1,495/month (based on a 32% tax bracket).2.

Andy Sirkin, based in San Francisco but supposedly has done some in Las Angeles. 

No one is perfect though in RE if your doing volume your going to have a few that are bummers but at least in our program there is control.. not this feeling of helplessness when you hand your money over to a syndicate and they go dark your totally out of control of your funds..

Any type of investment real estate anywhere in the US can be sold and replaced by any other type of investment real estate of any number of properties anywhere in the US.Washington to CA is perfectly fine.  

Sounds like you are going with a Fannie/Freddie type loan based on the cap of 2%.