It's a balance of cashflow and wealth accumulation.One of the goals is to have tenants pay as much of your cost-of-ownership as possible (loans, taxes, insurance, etc.)In high-cost areas, any Class A or B property you buy will usually negative cashflow for the first 3-5 years, until rents rise enough to cover the negative cashflow + rising taxes & insurance.Investing OOS increases your risks because you may not know the market and you can't check on everything/everyone all the time.If you move forward with your buddies, HIGHLY recommend creating a solid Partnership Agreement!

My concern is that if i apply for a HELOC to use for the down payment before i apply for a mortgage, A) I wont get approved due to my DTI ratio, and B) I wont get approved without first showing the bank I have the 20% down payment before pulling the HELOC.

Some of the best BRRRR deals I have seen play out this way:You buy a home cheap enough that when you do a renovation and pull out 75-80% LTV, your rent covers your mortgage and you have returned most of your investmentThis is for A-B class areas. 

B. 

@Celine Li Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

I mean it. yet you see people B*@tching and complaining about it. 

Maybe I missed it, Bill B kind of eluded it but why not do seller financing? 

If you are limited to those areas for residency, and you choose to keep that job, you are going to have to either a) wait for a couple years and save up a heftier down-payment, b) change your strategy like you said and go for houses further away (do flips, STR or BRRR).Or, if you are sold on the house-hack concept, at some point you might have to look at a different job that allows you to move where house-hacking will work....

DSCR is for A Class property or B class with a A+ borrower.

Quote from @Cathy B.: You can also check for a possibility of a leak yourself at the meter.