My home has 2 private streets, one that leads to my driveway and the other that goes up the side of my property that I park some of my vehicles (because you can never have too many vehicles) and is an easement to other properties.  

Or rental demand could be poor leading to higher than norm vacancies.

@Ryon PaxHave you considered cutting some of your personal expenses to pay for the HELOC or find another way to generate added income?

If your Alabama LLC conducts all operations and income generation strictly in Alabama, you may not need to register it as a foreign LLC in California.

Jumping into a deal just because it feels like you "need" to can be tempting, but as your story highlights, it doesn’t always lead to the returns we hope for no matter how hard we try and convince ourselves that we know everything, it is like the universe pushing the other way around against us.I especially appreciate your point about really knowing your market.

First things first, remember it's a marathon, and you are getting such a head start that, in the long term, you will be leading the pack no matter your pace!

You can learn to do this independently or get a rockstar REALTOR to lead the way.

Obviously, using the online listing page at ALE solutions is different than a cold email, and I am referring to the latter.That brings up an obvious question: how do you develop those leads, then?

RE Pro Status supercharges this.If you or your spouse are an RE Pro, your LP investments can lead to depreciation offsetting both passive and active income.If you are not an RE Pro, the losses due to depreciation can only be used to offset passive income—such as income from other rental properties or other passive investments.This post is misleading ... 

@Michael Daniel - I'm experimenting with a few "AI" generated sources/lists now and my initial perspective is that they're another source of deal flow, but not much better conversion than other areas including wholesalers, MLS, etc...