i didn't even know auctions gave opportunities to actually have access to properties beforehand.Given your line of work, i would say that you are uniquely positioned to work well in the outlined situation.

Or would you not try to do this deal at all and wait to build up the cash position to fund the down payment, which could take 2-3 years?

2-I am trying to position to the Buyers to take it as-is: home has been used as a 2 family since its construction and I just bought it 2 years ago with this not coming up. 

We advertise on Furnished finder, zillow and our own website. 

The problem is your equity position meaning if the home is worth $1.3M and you owe $975K you are sitting at a 75% LTV with only 25% equity.

I am interested if anyone has a referral for a bank that will lend (first position) a HELOC on a 4 family property in Columbus, Georgia.

It's a gateway into the investment you actually want to make.I'd recommend you put yourself in a position to take advantage of a REIT exit as an OPTION, not an OBLIGATION.

Here is the link to the website. 

is there a particular website that has the application.  

When you research a market, does anyone strictly use reventure.app or propstream, or is it still important to visit websites that show things like population growth, crime rate, unemployment rate, etc.