If you are paying a lower than current market interest rate then don't pay it down because your debt service is cheap.

If you're making 4.5% now, you'll pay more servicing the debt on a HELOC.

The bad news is that now I am providing a service that cna be easily offered by a local realtor.

So typically depreciation and expensing of costs usually happen on the placed in service date.

He has over a dozen affiliate companies that pay him every time a member uses their services.

I'd advise you to pick a service that partners with the Campaign Registry to let you register a phone number in order to comply with TCPA and benefit from optimal deliverability.

To qualify as a real estate professional, a taxpayer must meet both of the following criteria:Taxpayers perform more than 50% of services in real property trades or businesses in which they materially participate.

Hence you needing to retain an Architect and have them do due diligence into the feasibility at which part of their services would be checking what is able to be built in compliance with the applicable jurisdictions. 

You will file a 990-T and there are plenty of services out there to help with this. 

Since I've never used their services, I'd like to know what their experiences have been with them.