By comparison, liquidation of these properties today would yield a slight loss.

Dave Ramsey is proud of you ;)There's no 'right' time to pull out the HELOC bc its a floating rate until you draw so it might be 9% today and 10% tomorrow and 8% the day after.

The irony of the 1% "rule" is that those who could even use it effectively don't need it, ie if you need to spend more than 30 seconds thinking about whether it fits the guidelines you're probably not educated enough in RE to use it anyway. 

Outstanding education, local and national meetings and lots of networking.

So, what is a "Good" GP/Syndicator look like today? 

I did see that mentioned in a LinkedIn post actually today, the clawback rule. 

There are very few sellers of notes right now, so who are you buying and selling too.You are going to be sadly dissappointed and realize after 3-6 months you probably wasted your money.Your best bet is to join some groups on FB or elsewhere and start to learn that way.Let me ask you this question: Have you spoken to any note investor out there to ask them about the environment today to actually get into notes? 

I also wouldn't be involved in day-to-day operations onsite.

In my mind, out of state investing means extending the education and research phase and pushing the 1 year goal to maybe a 2 year goal.

There are several texas who to me are not people I would want to do business with who took millions from investors and never returned it and still is out there raising $ and people are still giving him money for education and investing which is not gonna end well for them.