You will need down payment money, You will need cash reserves Money, you'll need closing costs money, and you will need to get a bank loan.

Did they have bank statements showing utility payments for the rentals?

This way, you would have two income sources offsetting most, or all, of your mortgage payment.

Furnitured finder is great for finding professional traveler and I like apartments.com because of their payment setup if free for the tenants and myself.

FHA also allows some flexibility with grants and assistance programs, which could help with closing costs or down payment.

My plan is to use my HELOC from my current primary residence as the down payment.

Look at the values of your 2 properties, consider any outstanding debt, calculate what your payment might look like on a cash out refi, compare that to current or potential rents.

I know very little about legal precedent but I'd expect the major meter manufactures (selling into the utility space) to be well incentived to challenge these items best they can, and they have money.Here are the issues, and the reasons that the difference between an air forced system and a boiler/hydronic system are not meaningful for this discussion (ie efficacy issues of sub metering exist for either when method of measurement is measuring heat at point of delivery):In either case, the blower (or pump for a boiler) is the method of 'moving' either air (central air) or water/glycol or equivalent (boiler etc). 

My question is "for anyone with this particular experience" Is it a far fetched idea to do a cash out refi on house "A" to payoff some personal debt and large payment on house "B" to knock down the principal?

If rates do go down significantly, it will be more of a sign of economic instability.I recommend continuing to save monies until you come up with enough for a decent down payment.