When all the dust settles, and the  person searching is tired and discouraged and gives up, Jerry may not have bought  a single lot, but he's made some money from the training he sold you, which was his main goal from the beginning!

So PLEASE don’t make another huge financial decision and then tell that same person after you do it.

I don't personally care about checks anymore so that wasn't an important feature for me. 

If you move to NYC, focus on maximizing your earning potential while investing in affordable out-of-state markets with strong rental demand, like San Antonio or Indianapolis.

Have you calculated what your (monthly nut) is you need to survive business wise and personally?

Often times you will pay much more in taxes than if you pulled the money out, paid the taxes and penalty and then started investing in real estate.For example, with the financing you mentioned, the IRA must pay taxes on the portion of the profit earned by financing. 

Left me feeling like a basically have a retail/fulfillment person on my team so I'm a big fan and would recommend giving them a shot, especially if you're in a similar position as I was: Needing to furnish an STR quickly and cost-efficiently. 

You are a high w2 earner, The house is worth 110k today, you are buying from your grandma for 60k in exchange for free rent for life, upside ARV of 200k.The costs of owning the house will help provide tax relief on your high w2 earnings, you are buying a great chunk of equity that will pay off in the future, and you and your grandma are doing each other solids. 

To Sum it up, its a good idea if you can exceed the cost of capital (higher rate than your cost of debt) with what you earn on your heloc/debt you pull out and invest.The question is how much gains above is enough to substantiate the risk of your variable interest rate, well thats up to your personal investing criteria.

I personally see several issues with investing in Dubai real estate right now.