My goal on these properties is to generate cash flow eventually supplementing my other W9 income. 

I just have to allocate my time differently and put more effort into other avenues and use Craigslist as a supplement.

The 4% is more supplemental, not all the money you'd every have.

You can do it but why would you want to operate your business where you are supplementing your tenants rent.

For my own personal goals, adding a few strictly cash flowing properties to the portfolio make sense which is why I'm ok with this strategy to help supplement a larger plan. 

They have exceeded 30% IRRs with this model in several deals and have successfully done 55+ deals to-date.So, if you are going to borrow short to invest longer term you may want to consider a syndication deal that uses supplemental financing with strong value add to refinance and return investor capital over the shorter term as described in #3.

REI can beat the ROI of an index fund, but only because we supplement our capital with our time.

I was looking to supplement my W2 income and get my feet wet with real estate investment.

Most elderly people in that situation like having an income stream to supplement their retirement and is why they still own rental properties and converting from landlord to lien holder would alleviate the hassle of them having to do improvements and repairs, this could also offset some/most capital gains as well.

Stated another way, the HELOC returned my down payment, closing costs, mortgage supplements, and all repairs improvements in about five years.The big difference is, this property is in the Kierland area of North Scottsdale, and not Las Vegas.