All of my houses were local to me (though I worked 40+ hours out of town an hour away) so it wasn't a huge strain if I wasn't at the office.

You just tighten your renting standards and follow the laws.Know your specific/local laws well. 

I feel like it will help reduce the strain on the HVAC system during hot summers.

Maybe this isn't the case here, but I frequently have people approach me to tighten my bid against a contractor when they really are referring to a 3 man remodeling crew or handyman.

I've found, going through three refinances this year, that mortgage rules have been tightening.

As much I and other real estate investors hate it, I do think the long term trend is to tighten up on the tax benefits of real estate.  

The point as I see it is that an additional ELOC or refi of the FIRST one will put a strain on ITS cash flow, but so long as it isn't a negative flow, the amount cashed out should easily be able to act as the full deposit for the second, so the rest could be fairly conventional.And of course, the second one needs to have a SIMILAR order of built-in equity, and so on!...

You may need to tighten your belt to try and save up a little money from your part time job.Would tenants take you seriously?

One thing I've heard now from a couple of borrower friends is that many of the crowdfunding sites are now all tightening up their lending criteria.

Multis can still work one of my Ventura Properties is a Triplex I bought last year it cashflows very well things have tightened up since then but if you look hard enough you can still find cashflowing multis.