If you have nothing, and make nothing, you declare bankruptcy, wreck your credit and try to go back to renting.

Hence I decided not to go with them.

They tend to go after rookie investors and have seen to many in my network that have purchased "bad deals" and are in a bind with NW deals.

If you are hiring a PM, then it's not a big difference either way, but if self-managing you don't want to go much bigger than you have been or you may not be able to do all the work.

If you can pay off the HELOC quickly, that is not bad way to go. 

The new design takes the home from a 3 bed, 2 bath to a 4 bed, 3 bath, 2,400 sq ft rambler on a large lot in highly desired area.

Sounds like 1031 to a different property and house hack from there is the way to go.

Average rental rates, vacancies, competition, growth, appreciation, etc..Ive heard of scrolling through Zillow and collecting information by looking at properties for sale/rent but was wondering if there is a site where all of this information is easily accessible or any ideas for better ways to go about it.Thanks in advance!

It is a HUGE bummer as an agent to write up an offer to go to a junk property (happened to me last week) to end up pulling out.

Just the other week I was giving a tour to a potential Canadian investor, and they were shocked at how quickly a street goes from mid/high-end to....well, not as desirable.