Yet accessing the equity is not your goal!

Advertise your property in more places, contact local RE agents and let them know what you have available for rent and stick to your tenant screening process 100% of the time.  

You'd access the HELOC funds and then lend them to an investor at an agreed-upon rate for an agreed-upon period of time.

The main areas usually causing problems being means of egress, fire separation for each unit, ceiling heights within each unit, sprinklers throughout all units, accessible unit and required parking. 

Multiple tenants reported struggling to access their portals at various times.

Let me explain to you why I chose CA as well as my goals and strategy.For starters, I'm active duty military, and this has given me access to a VA home loan which gives me better leverage to easily purchase a property with zero down.

Does said person have to pay monthly fees for MLS access for this benefit?

I am trying to leverage my home's equity to access investment funds but I've run into a road block.

There is no reason to buy your own first for experience purposes - and the fact you already live there makes it 'owner occupied' if you end up going with traditional bank financing - which will give you better rates, and access to more programs. 

We do have access to a HELOC on the property which we leveraged to purchase our current primary residence (balance borrowed has been fully repaid at this point) but we would rather not pull that lever to roll into a new property given current interest rates and the adjustable nature of the HELOC.