When you can access the opportunities first, you get to analyse and find the best deals first which means you have the broadest selection with minimum/to no  pushback from the lead.Unfortunately using PS guarantees you will not be at the front of the queue and certainly not first mover.

Would it be wise to use a HELOC on our current residence to use for a down payment on a new property You can make $ investing anywhere.

The low down payment house hack is the way to go.

If I would have used competent management, the manager that I picked and vetted, then it would have cash flowed, assuming they could have filled the vacancies.The big lesson I learned is that the property manager selected can make or break a deal. 

In short, I can afford the additional $1100/mo cost of a second house, even until I rent it out.I have around $35K in HYSA and emergency funds that I could use for a down payment, but that's less than 20% which would be required for a conventional loan, assuming full purchase price.

Thanks to COVID, for a couple of years, you can actually make enough money to be cash flow positive even if you hire a property manager AND have mortgage payments. 

I've heard there's a good chance the mortgage company won't care as long as the payments continue to be made on time but I still want to protect myself just in case.

It will be very difficult to cash flow in Austin using traditional LTR methods unless you put down a huge down payment.

They are more useful IMO for getting chunks of equity right off the bat thru value add and then either realizing that equity by flipping it and using for a down payment on something bigger or hold a couple years and then sell at that point to do that then. 

Upfront expenses and monthly payments must be considered when calculating the return on your investment.EXAMPLEYou cash out $100,000 of your equity and use this as a down payment on a $400,000 investment property.