Sara,I see this a lot and I always ask if you know you are going to refinance in the long run to consolidate the Heloc why not just do a Cash out refinance instead. 

Personally, if I can hold with a little bit of cash flow but good upside appreciation over time I’d prefer to hold.

Understand how to "add value" to the property and evaluate cap rates, IRR, cash on cash returns. 

I use a spreadsheet I developed to determine my entry costs, carrying costs, cash flow, tax write offs, appreciation and exit costs.

The investor who bought this home owns an asset that is cash flow positive from day one and one that will benefit from all 5 profit centers of rental property investing for many years to come.

If you're open to expanding your search, Columbus OH also has positive cash flowing deals at an affordable price point - $120k-$180k. 

Interest income is interest income, unless you decided to roll some of the current cash into a self directed IRA at which point your interest income would be deferred for a later time and allow your funds to grow tax free.

Purchase price: $515,000 Cash invested: $960,000 Sale price: $1,850,000 New Construction development, What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

My professional background is data science / analytics, which means analyzing cash flows will probably come more naturally than building relationships, which apparently, is how one finds deals worth making.Are there meetups in these areas I should attend (digitally at first, presumably)? 

We have a home that we are almost done remodeling that we would like to try the mid term strategy to increase our cash flow vs long term.