What you need to do is sit down and make a list of your 3 month, 6 month, 1 year, 3 year, 5 year, 10 year goals.

To qualify for a loan, focus on having a credit score of at least 620 (or 580 for FHA loans), keeping your total monthly debt under 43% of your income, and saving enough for a down payment and closing costs—about 5-10% of the home's price in total.

Question- do I keep the heloc I have and just pay it down or do I get a heloc on the rental property to pay off current heloc and go forward with another property? 

A reserve is unnecessary, but I still keep around $15,000 - $20,000 in my account.The point is, that you should sit down and assess your finances to determine what the worst-case scenario may look like, how much you would need to cover it without impacting your life, and whether you will need to build a reserve.

A $30k down payment is going to DRASTICALLY limit your pool of buyers.

So I just joined Buildium, spent hours setting everything up, it seems mostly pretty great, except one HUUUUGE issue that is making my head explode...they don't support credit card tracking?!?!?  

Hi Saul,Vegas and Phoenix are on the pricier side, so you'll need to put a large down-payment down if you want to cover all your expenses with some cash leftover. 

I just wanted to give you guys a heads up.

@davidPalm meet head..

First, the stairs leading down to it would likely need to be replaced.