Quote from @Cameron Moore: Exactly. 15 years ago, I noticed an increase in owners using insurance to pay for a replacement roof, usually to sweeten the pot during a sale.

If you treat this like a hobby, it will eventually cost you a lot more than you want to pay.

An old business associate once told me "There are two people in this world you make sure you pay...the IRS and your attorney."

We are saving around 50%+ of our income on a yearly basis, while also putting away for retirement and we would both like to get out from under the mortgage on our primary residence sooner rather than later.After plugging in some of our numbers to a spreadsheet to simulate a first lien HELOC it seems to indicate that we would be able to payoff our primary residence in ~10 years while also paying significantly less in interest from a conventional mortgage.

If you are living there you can keep the 4% rate.If you are not living there you can rent it out to pay for the property taxes. 

@Chris Seveney basically treating it as a sale of assets and having to pay capital gains.

It gives you one property that can potentially pay for itself while putting a roof over your head and giving you experience as a hands-on landlord.

You pay a down payment, closing etc.

@Gp G. going to guess your current PMC is charging you a flat fee for finding a tenant.If so, who's going to pay an agent that brings a tenant via the MLS?

An IRA would pay a small tax on such unrelated debt-financed income.