BTW: did you know Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods?

Brokered a client this 5br 2ba house in Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago but the cheaper less nice side of town for $350,000.

Its a gamble to go the permit route or not in Philly and absolutely matters the neighborhood/your neighbors as they are usually the folks that will call L&I on you OR if your property is near other construction sites where inspectors would be traveling to/from. 

Mortgage on my current home (4 bed, 1.5 bath, on roughly an acre, in a quiet neighborhood) is $1445 and the idea would be to rent it out for $2000ish plus all utilities depending on the rental market this time next year but currently that's pretty close to where it would be. 

Otherwise you will learn this a hard way that somebody's "C" neighborhood is really a  "F" neighborhood. 4.

My parents are interested in buying a property in their neighborhood using a HELOC to buy it for cash.

It may not be, as I've made a ton of capital improvements and I've seen comps sell for over $220K in the same neighborhood.

I drove the property yesterday and I'd say its probably a C+ or B- property in what i would call a B  neighborhood.

With your excellent credit and a solid down payment, they may be open to adjusting their rate, especially if they know you’re shopping around.Explore Non-Traditional Lenders: Some private or hard money lenders could offer lower rates for DSCR loans, particularly if the property cash flows well.

But that benevolent cycle, which is about a couple decades old, means that lots of neighborhoods are up and coming after being down and out for decades.