Meetups are the best confidence supplement to books and podcasts in the world.

2) Using our HELOC to supplement the down payment.. we do have some bonus payments coming at the end of the year we could pay it down plus the tax savings could help us pay it off, so maybe it would be worth it in the end? 

He only had $1 million insurance coverage.

Honestly, that is all the insurance company needs to report the loss and raise your insurance next year.Good Investing...I called my mortgage broker to ask about changing the coverage to the rental coverage and he asked me if there was any damage after the hurricane.

I should have also added that the reason I am pulled towards real estate as a wealth generating mechanism (I.e. the appreciation aspect) is that I bought my first house with ~$20K of my own money in Baltimore (supplemented with 6K of grants), bought at the right time and did a little fixing it up, used the proceeds from sale of Baltimore home to get into the lower end of the market in quickly appreciating Seattle.

Bottom line, be thankful that you’re able to find coverage at all, because some properties can’t.  

You state that everything is equal but are concerned that not everything is equal...It's very possible to see a price spread like that even with comparable coverage but it's also vitally important you work with someone that has your back to make sure you understand your coverage before you'd have to use it.  

You should have an umbrella policy to cover everything, beyond maximum liability coverages.

Did you have replacement value coverage ? 

for $1000 coverage, a tenant staying 6 months would pay $354, or for a year, $708.