@Eli Jerman Owning a duplex where you live in one unit and rent out the other offers significant tax benefits but adds complexity.

Offer much less than zillow says .

Sounds like you are going with a Fannie/Freddie type loan based on the cap of 2%.  

Paid platforms often offer additional features like market analytics, off-market property leads, and filters for investor-specific criteria, giving them a leg up over free options.Exactly, most platforms have to offset cost somewhere because of how expensive it is to keep the data up to date.

In my experience, the good ones are expensive, typically require a subscription, and sometimes they even do a physical inspection of your premises to verify it is a legitimate person / business in US.

The seller is offering seller financing at 2% interest with a 9-year balloon.

@Patrick Hancock let's touch base next week

Were based on dubious and unproven speculation, assumptions and best case scenarios2.

Having owned property in rockford its not a great appreciation area so getting a HELOC will probably take 5-10 years based on loan pay down and maybe some slight appreciation.

My credit should be the highest allowable also and I shouldn't have problems with approval.Ok, i shopped about 80 lenders (based on Fridays rates, market is closed so no live pricing)Conventional Full Doc loan you would be at 7.875% if you put 20% down (you said what the house was worth, but not your purchase price).