3) How well prepped was your property?

My plan is to funnel the rental incomes from all three properties, along with my W2 income, back into the HELOC while covering all expenses from it as well.

Money now is very good because you are new and ready to do all the work, but the examples you'll hear about are people posting on BP saying, "well, I did all the work and they got a lot or most of the profit." 

.🎯 Your 6-Month Timeline:Month 1: Foundation (5-7 hours/week)Morning routine: 1 hour daily market researchEvening routine: Deal analysis practiceWeekend: BP forums & networkingKey Goal: Analyze 10 deals on paperMonth 2: Education (8-10 hours/week)Complete 1 RE courseJoin 2 local REI groupsSchedule lunch breaks with agentsKey Goal: Build your initial power team listMonth 3: Systems (10-12 hours/week)Set up deal tracking systemCreate document templatesEstablish banking relationshipsKey Goal: Ready to make offersMonth 4: Lead Generation (12-15 hours/week)Drive neighborhoods after workWeekend open housesSetup automated MLS alertsKey Goal: Generate first 5 qualified leadsNow, the Owners and Brokers you deal with may not enjoy this, but you can certainly "practice" making offers.  

They contacted me as well through someone I know but they have not used them yet.

That probably doesn't work well for rents, and the neighborhood will look beat up in 10 years, when almost every house got sold to investors.  

I just set up my vrbo account and still some finer details about planning the communication, cleaning service, maintenance persons, etc…

I'll be getting several more opinions from other plumbers as well.  

We initially spent about 20 hours getting my accounts set up and organized in Quickbooks.

Alot of unknowns as you don't have the ability to walk the property beforehand, but interesting process, and pretty good deals exist there.While the Trustee Sales are cash purchases, there are many hard money options that can turn over the funds in time for the 24 hour funding required to complete the purchase.If you are interested, let me know and I can go into more detail, as well as make some other suggestions for you to consider.