If your bet is appreciation, bet your underlying fixed costs go up.

Cheap fixes rarely work . 

What if a property was bought with the intention of being a fix & flip but changed course during rehabbing to STR?

I change the title company info only on the occasions that the seller has indicated they require a specific title company handle the transaction.For short sale offers, I have just stated that I would open escrow upon acceptance.

I might use it to buy a property that I fix up and refinance out of to pay off the HELOC.

To be honest we have fixed some things on the spot without a written request when we had time but other times just said, send a request.   

My advice is focus on getting your first property: buy the worst house on the best block you can afford and fix it up to the quality of the surrounding houses to force appreciation and build equity quickly while your housemates pay most of your mortgage.

Original plan was to fix up, rent, get some tax savings, and refi.

My plan is to buy an undervalued MUP with an FHA loan, fix it up, rent out the other units while I live in one, then refinance it and use the year I’m required to live in the property to build up my down payment on the next MUP, then repeat until I have at least a $1M portfolio.

Then I get the prospective clients making 6 figures on their regular job but they're still swapping out doors on kitchen cabinets or fixing toilet guts in the evenings and can't see the forest through the trees yet.