I think it's a balance.

Taking your screening method above- as an investor, it would make sense that you are choosing the applicant with the best balance of income, credit, references and a clean background. 

Now, we obviously can't assume anything in terms of future appreciation, but the way we looked at is absolutely worst case scenario we would have to sell the rental, and in that situation, would we be able to sell it for enough to cover the outstanding mortgage and the HELC balances. 

Overall, my plan would be to buy a Primary House hack once per year in an appreciating market, while buying 2-3 mid term rentals in more "cash flow" markets to balance out the composition of the portfolio.

They also are 0% for 12 months right now, with the min payment being 1% of the balance.  

I don't see any opportunity for a normal person that can touch that in any other asset class. there's always unlimited auxiliary benefits when investing to a "home" where we can live in :- with househack, we literally mortgageless and live for free , stock index can't do that lol- lets say we live in CA but kid wanna do college in TX, we buy RE in TX and househack, almost mortgageless again- again if we keep buying property and DSCR is at least 0.8-0.9 and our W2 could offset the balance, it's another almost mortgageless investment.The true limiting factor of RE investment is the DTI.

I'm curious about how they are able to convert your business credit cards into a cash line of credit while avoiding the high balance transfer interest rates.  

You can also balance looking at turnkey vs. value-add properties.

I use those 0% for a year balance transfer/convenience checks citi offers a lot too.

Refinanced the $185k balance in 2023 How did you add value to the deal?