I'm glad it's working out for you now, and I hope it continues into the future.

If a potential/future tenant calls our telephone number, how are we able to compliantly respond with a text message?

If your lease doesn't explicitly address pest control responsibilities, it’s worth reviewing and considering adding a pest clause in the future to prevent disputes by adding every single pest.

They will likely also need to close any access points to satisfy city inspectors that the now capped chimney cannot be used to "vent" anything in the future.You will likely want a demo team that is much cheaper to do the actual demo and haul off, but you need either the mason or an engineer to stipulate how far down they can/should demo, while leaving enough room for the cap to be effective and maintain any structural rigidity into the future to not create more issues.Long story longer, I would call more licensed, insured contractors.  

Most cities won't care if the owner lives in the basement, they only care if it's tenants.The egress window is also a good idea for increasing future sales price.

I get very excited about investing and see it being a large part of my future.

Was it hard to predict future issues? 

My end goal for investing in real estate is create a financial secure future for myself those loved ones around me.

And if so, as I'm paying down the original primary residence HELOC, in the future, can I use it again to purchase a rental investment?

I explain they will have difficulty renting a quality unit, that I will ding their credit, that I will attempt to garnish their future income to recover what they owe.