Instead of a HELOC, I'd encourage you to investigate a PLOC-- Personal Line of Credit.

@Avi Garg  Yes that seems to be the struggle, picking just ONE market to focus on, but once I do that, it'll be time to seriously investigate!

Your first move is to go and investigate and speak to the tenants.

That would be the first thing I would advise you to investigate.

One word of advice is to take action, many folks investigate, review, analyze, etc...for a long time, I would recommend - go look at 50 properties, find a broker/agent that will open the doors for you to view them, analyze each property financially before you go in, knowing the numbers prior, then adjust your numbers.  

Don’t pay the mortgage on time and have the insurance policy lapseIf something’s late the mortgage company is going to investigate it.If there’s no insurance on their investment, the mortgage companies going to investigate it.Now if interest rates rise, there might be a reason for lenders to look at their portfolio and review everything.I don’t know, I just know that if you buy on a wraparound mortgage or sub to, and take care of make the payments on time and insurance, and you some kind of trust to protect yourself, youre in pretty good shape.

Believe me when I say that local assessors are called daily by lenders, bank auditors, and investigators for various government-sponsored programs.

I also get listings from Rehabbers and other Investors in which sometimes we cross market even so  we always investigate the property.  

The numbers are looking pretty good so it's worth investigating. 

I will do more investigating before I agree to anything.Thanks for the advise.