In 2020 the house was 75% done and I had to re appraise the house and get a new loan to pay off all my credit cards, personal loans, etc.

Working on building my team around me and trying to decide if a RE focused CPA is needed for "Tax Strategy" at this point. 

RE does all 3 and more.  

If you're using the HELOC for just the down payment portion on the investment property, then you'll likely need to fund the rest with private money or a HML and then re-fi out to conventional once you've renovated and rented.

HA!!!

I would find out their DSCR ratio and make sure you can hit their minimums either upon purchase or when they desire those ratios (maybe after stabilization in a year or so).5) Unit Turns/ Re-Leasing.

The book was released in 2018, pre-covid, and I wonder if the RE market has just changed this much or if Michael is just really focused on finding the 1 out of 100 deal that has the high cap rate and is a viable deal.Ideally I'd like to find a community/mentor that can give me some input on the realities and possibilities of the deals in today's market and normalize some of the viewpoints that Michael states in his book. 

At your suggestion, I went on an looked for Tri-State REI and Tri-State RE and not so surprisingly, there are groups for both in the area.

Buying correctly is another large factor (in any RE transaction).Of the comments above from Evan, while it may appear to be scary and cautionary (as it should), don't let it discourage you either.

Growing business with networking is a wonderful opportunity, but with no experience in the RE space in the Triangle, I'd recommend you spend all of your time learning the market with this much runway.