Quote from @Ron S.: it's just this quarter's get rich quick scheme.

I understand why they are used, but personally I would rather leave a voicemail and have a warm body call me back than deal with another automated system.Think of it this way: if someone is so urgently looking to sell a property that they can't wait for a call back in 1 business day, do you think they are going to sit through some automated system?  

I was just sitting down bored and playing with my BP profile. 

It’s been sitting on market for $2.8M….

I'd sit down with a real estate savvy CPA and go over the numbers.

Since then I’ve bought 14 houses from equity just sitting in properties doing absolutely nothing for me.

But if you came in close to budget , in a reasonable time frame , and the work was good quality and you are happy , then you paid a fair price .Its easy to sit back after the fact and tell someone that they could have gotten it done cheaper . 

In such scenarios, recourse may involve engaging an attorney to initiate a quiet title action subsequent to the foreclosure process.

I've noticed in my area that houses that have been converted into 2 units tend to sit on the market for much longer and sell for much less than traditional single family houses with similar sqft and finishes.

HELOC bank doesn't want their line used as a term loan on real estate they don't have collateralized and the bank that you apply for a loan for doesn't want your down payment to be borrowed.If you wanted to get the HELOC for home improvements then decide to draw on it for liquidity, had it sit in a bank account for a couple months and then applied for a MF loan and used it as the down payment, you'd have to answer no to the question, "is any part of the down payment borrowed".