As for increasing rents, you'll want to match your increases to the increases in expenses (inflation) at a minimum, so think 3% or more.

Especially the “virtual” wholesalers who have never been to the property, and base their numbers off Zillow’s inflated estimates.I recently purchased a property from a homeowner who had went through multiple bad experiences.  

A lot of wholesalers artificially inflate their numbers.

As time goes on, rent growth will outpace expenses, but you also don't cater to the tenant class that is the easiest on rentals. 100 yr old homes in C class neighborhoods in the rust belt are a dime a dozen, so unless there is a seismic shift supply and demographic trends, I wouldn't bank on appreciation above the inflation rate of 2%. 

And new housing isYou are allowed to raise  the rent by 5% plus rate of inflation (CPI, but there are questions on which one).

I have arrived at a rough estimate of 2010's cash flow by using 2010's rent and subtracting PM fees @ 10%, Vacancy (using 2018 rates with a floor of 4%), and Taxes+Insurance+CapEx reduced by 15% (to account for inflation).

So be my guess and invest in Real Estate of any kind at these ridiculous over inflated prices and lose your *** doing it.

That would be akin to selling your stocks in 2012 after losing your butt for 5 years; which was 5 years shy of the FULL rebound of the stock market to a point about 2x the 2007 highs.Investing in the stock market is not wisely used a short-term investment vehicle and I believe you would be doing yourself a disservice to look up and see the sky falling (due to a very clear cause -- a virus) and dump your depressed stocks so that you could put that money into a (potentially) inflated commodity like investment real estate.   

Also, you should look into rate term refi'ing the HELOC and primary into your new loan.Because of inflation, the money you spend today is the most expensive money you will spend for the rest of your life.

Also, I like some of the first tier suburbs where you can still buy some value and prices aren't inflated like other areas.2.