The expertise I have given has saved people hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I'm Christian Campos, a private money lender and real estate investor from Los Angeles, CA.Where are you located in California? 

Then, you need to keep managing your payments to actually have savings to make it worth while.  

Hi @James Heller I am fully renovating 2 of my units on a 4plex I have in Golden Hill...feel free to reach out and send me a private message if you need assistance and contacts....You can get cabinets and prefab quartz countertops pretty inexpensive and refacing is usually more expensive, I've found.  

Firstly, regarding the location, I understand that exact location details can be helpful for some investors, but it's my personal preference to keep that information private for now.

The ability to do what you want, when you want, and have money coming in to support that.Things to work on: savings, credit, going to local real estate meetups, listening to podcasts, reading books.

It’s an investment that will likely pay off in terms of durability, maintenance savings, and overall property value over time.

Using a HELOC for the down payment is feasible if you have a plan to repay it with bonus payments and tax savings.

It is possible as@Ashish Acharya said that you might still have some tax savings from the one purchase as a partial exchange.

This will save you on subscription costs.If you want to discuss any of this further, I'm happy to answer questions and help walk you through it.Best of luck!