When you have a duplex and tenants on both sides stay for ten years, it almost guarantees that something isn't right.I would study your market and determine the value of your rental, because I bet you are losing money every month.

After the Paradise fire Butte county lose nearly two-thirds of its population.

The problem with that is that now you're no longer tracking what you've paid to actual vendors, so you lose the ability to issue 1099's and know what you've paid who at the end of the year.  

Better to get what you can, than to lose it all.

I hate using the HELOC because I am losing money on interest but I wanted to keep growing. 

Logically I can't make a solid business case to cancel them, as the cash flow is fine vs losing it all with a tornado.

Its when all of the work is performed and you are literally prone to lose everything. 

I guess a flat seasonal fee like any insurance policy, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

This is not the best way to invest in real estate as you lose out on principal pay down but it gets you instant income that you can make mostly passive by hiring out the property management.

Those who blow it off eventually lose eligibility.To ignore the correlations is nonsense.