Welcome @Andrae S WigginsThere are REI opportunities in different markets - markets in the Midwest and Southeast of the country are great - where not only are the purchase prices reasonable for most RE investors, but the homes are turnkey (new builds or completely rehabbed homes, tenant ready, systems 10 years of life remaining on them, property management teams in place) with appreciating home value AND appreciating rent. 

I have been investing mainly in trust deeds but like you got connected with Dave and just recently ended up investing in his fund, my primary reason was for diversification and because it is passive. 

Hi Aaron, any particular reason that your mentor suggested buying rental first?

Are there wholesalers in your market you can ask if you don't want to talk to a lawyer for some reason?

If you are not building in sufficient capex, then these costs could be higher, if not much higher.

The six month cd isn’t the point my understanding is that I can’t just take out the HELOC, I need to actually use the money for my plan to work and a short term CD seemed safe and reasonable 

@Jason Wray, The reason that our shop is pretty hot about your post is two-fold, we do all of the things that you are implying that we don't (other than government loans, we don't work in that space). 

It is written in our contract that we can make these decisions without the owner's permission for these exact reasons.

The reason we supply a couple packs is to avoid the cheap knockoffs. 

It is balance sheet heavy but for some reason, most investors in BP are just focused on P&L and they stick with these free accounting platform that doesn't even utilize the Balance Sheet.A lot of the time when I clean up client's books, it's mainly in the balance sheet that needs to be fixed up.