If you were limited in cash reserves atleast you'll have the HELOC as a 2nd or 3rd back up source of funds to weather storms.

Perhaps if your partner was a general contractor or handyman type there may be some merit there to reduce costs / increase profitability.If your partner enjoys deal sourcing, a better move might be for him to become an agent - so he could legally collect commissions from finding deals and managing properties for multiple people. 

Novo also integrates well with various business tools, which might streamline your operations.Business Credit Cards: If you’re looking for a solid credit card option, Capital One Spark Cash Plus offers unlimited 2% cashback and no foreign transaction fees.

Both are excellent platforms which save people immense amount of work and tme by compiling all the critical data you need in 1 place but there leads are way behind the county recorders/courts/notices i.e the source of most motivated seller leads.

Rodrigues is an awesome LOCAL lender, who works a lot with foreigners.

Can anyone recommend sources for contact information for property owners?

I occasionally get requests to manage commercial and love to have a referral source. 

Findlay is a real oppotunity beause you’ve got a combination of stable job sources, a decent population size, and often lower acquisition costs compared to bigger metros.About choosing an agent..

This requires a dedicated effort sourcing and analyzing hundreds of deals to find the one or two worth pursuing.  

To intentionally reduce the leverage more than required is a foreign concept to me especially in the San Diego market.