For your safety and that of your other tenant, if you feel personally threatened in any manner, seek professional help, which may include law enforcement.We're rooting for you!

I would get the right people to green light the safety of removing it, and not just trust my own judgment. 

Hi all, I'm new to the site and in full on learning mode right now, so please forgive me if I ask any rudimentary questions.

Although the cash flow is I think average, the appreciation potential is great, the population is in high growth mode, as well as job growth. 

So I'm about ready to begin looking for a first investment property but I need to know how much I should have up front to get the deal done and maybe have a starter safety net for any up front expenses.

If your most important benefit is safety, then stay where you are.

There's more safety in structure, don't be lazy about it.

Some safety.)There is zero % chance I would sell to buy another property unless you are leaving the area or doing an exchange in to something so big you need $200k instead of $160k.

Whatever you buy, do it with a margin of safety (reasonable discount to market value) to ensure that you can weather some storms.

Or, if you're happy to stay living there, but want as much immediately accessible cash in your pocket as a Lender would approve, you'd need to make sure your newly acquired investor mindset was in full bargain hunting / return-on-investment mode, because, your monthly repayments will increase significantly once you withdraw the maximum against a HELOC!