You are still going to have holding costs and a heloc will just have less holding costs that you would if you were doing a personal line or hard money. 

I personally target Lauderdale, Limestone, Morgan, and Madison Counties.

The owner was motivated due to personal circumstances and wanted to avoid the hassle of listing the property publicly.

I want to start smart and scale up as I learn the ropes, but I’m personally struggling to narrow down which area to focus on.If you’ve done this before, what advice would you give someone like me?

Is your goal to use being an agent for your own personal investments or actively try and grow your agent business to eventually leave your W2?

Personally I would not.

Many banks limit personal loan amounts.

Looking forward to meeting you all virtually sometime, or in person on a visit to PT. 

Personally for what people charge for these programs I would say you are 1000x  better off taking some courses at a local college, getting a degree and working in real estate to get paid for experience and then do real estate on the side for your own portfolio as well.

Fico while they will look these are not credit score driven loans like those buying rental houses or houses to live in...