I'd also never pay $700 for an LLC.

The only “good news” is you’re paying for last year’s shortage and thsi year’s taxes, or this year’s shortage and next year’s escrow account. 

I'm not sure I can copy and paste my Excel spreadsheet, so i will approximate the numbers here.Strategy:Take a Home Equity Loan (second) on our primary @ 5%.Pay off existing HELOC (variable, at 7.5% now), use remainder ($120k) to buy the land (plus 30k of our own cash).

Namely, that if a tenant (in this case accompanied by a whole family) ends up stop paying rent and I would be on the hook for both covering the mortgage and dealing with open ended legal costs and time.

Steady pay, you can learn how to manage property and deal with people, and you'll be licensed to handle sales on the side.

The most important rule is to have the cash flow of the new property be able to pay all its expenses, mortgage, AND the line of credit back.

Sure don't do the renovation, rent it for 200/m less, and maybe that 30k investment won't pay off until year 10, but you're still investing back into your property, improving it and adding value.

This is a the perfect vehicle to use for short term like buying a  property with cash, then refinancing the property to pay the line of credit back in full, and use it again.   

Also, providing value to others at a high level will pay off for you in the end if you stick with it.

If you have cash, you could pay off the underlying loan2.