If it's something like divorce or sudden, large, unexpected medical debt, that's one thing.

This was unexpected and I did not have processes in place to prepare myself. 

There's multiple components of this business, and successful investors don't try to do everything themselves.

It always seems like the first few months are fraught with problem guests and unexpected issues.

Plus if times get tough or unexpected expenses pop up, you can pay interest only on the HELOC.

@Ahmed Elias the structural component would be the only major concern.

Improving a credit score is another key component and you're tackling that as well. 

I'm running into some unexpected terms and rates trying to finance my first rental property through banks and want to get opinions and input from other here.

The advantage is that you have the flexibility to lower your payments if something unexpected comes along.

Instead of taking the depreciation over the standard number of years, you send in an army of qualified professionals and they go and look at each part of the building and make a guess at how many years each component has.