After acquisition, we furnished it, added a couple decks for a hot tub and solo stove fire pit, as well as a ton of string lights and were off to the races!

Once the property is sold we will be able to pay off the HELOC and will also have further funds coming in the following year.

Hi Steven,It sounds like you and your wife, Renee, have a wealth of experience in the real estate and construction fields, which is a great foundation for starting your real estate investing business.Given your background in residential remodeling and home inspections, and Renee's experience as a real estate agent, you're off to a strong start.

Off grid sounds cool to some, but it really limits your potential guest pool.

House hacking has completely changed my life (I've done it twice in Reno, NV), and I highly recommend it as a strategy starting off. 

I wasn’t looking to add value or find something off-market because the time and effort just didn’t seem worth it compared to focusing on my career.

You're better off focusing on specific markets, specific neighborhoods, analyzing numbers, and building an ideal buy [box].

With current interest rates, and they are at least 1% higher with potentially additional points for non owner occupied property, it is hard to find properties that will allow for positive cash flow after paying the mortgage, if you are looking for money for the down payment from a private lender, those are normally at higher than market and I am not sure it would be possible to pay it off.... please remember you need to take into account that you may not have a tenant for a certain amount of time, a tenant may stop paying rent, or you will have a big ticket item to fix, so I would wait if I were you and save to have enough for the down payment and closing costs and perhaps some money set aside for repairs. you also want to make sure that you have your own emergency fund outside of the money needed for the investment property because life happens ....

I think I'll hold off on any courses and just learn more from doing and the BP community.

While replacing the toilet, a burst pipe caused Cat 3 water damage that rendered large part of downstairs kitchen and upstairs bathroom unavailable and cordoned off for repairs .