So I am not losing out to much on the depreciation of a 25K house.1.

At current rents the property would lose $315/mo. 

You are going to lose major money renting it out.

They began losing sight of the math behind an investment and simply bought whatever they could because they could always sell it for more later.

Lenders have nothing to lose signing up a broker. 

With Austin being a hot market, you could lose out on a lot of appreciation.If you wanted to get some numbers to think through the different scenarios and tax implications, I would recommend consulting with an accountant/CPA!

Your rate would be above 6%+ with the current DSCR rates and losing the 3.875% rate obviously isn't ideal.

Once they find out I'm not in the country, they seemingly lose all interest.

Is the City of Pomona prepared to lose 10% of its rental unit supply (2300+ units)?

At the end of the day, the HELOC will you make you money in the end, not lose you money.