If I have several options, I would prefer a HELOC with no initial draw requirements (i.e. to establish a literal line of credit that I have no specific short term plans to use), i.e. not something like the better.com HELOC. 

If so, how did you approach it initially?

Initial Equity: The discount you achieve when buying below market value.

I don’t know how much initial equity but if your guess is right 10 cents on the dollar is about right. 

Quote from @Milly Owens: You may be right James, then again you would have a hard time convincing Asser...since the program reimbursed him his initial investment of $1,000 and then paid him $10,000 for the lead!

The neighborhood has been flourishing, making this incident highly unusual.What initially drew me to the property was the potential for high rent and strong cash flow.

I have been learning how the process works and there are a lot of resources for how to interview a sponsor and review the deal, but how do you initially access the deals to review?

Although the tenant initiated the payment on 12/31/2024, the funds didn’t reach your account until 1/6/2025, making it 2025 income.

I've had a long career in community development and have a lot of bank contacts that would likely be interested in investing, but I'd need to prove the concept first with an initial fund (there are also a lot of other community development tools that could be leveraged to maximize and scale this).

So the idea of doing this all from afar is a bit daunting, however, I know the most important thing here will be to create a great team and outsource as much as possible.I have set my sights on a couple of different markets being in the Southeast and the Midwest; these markets seem to provide the cash flow I am initially interested in generating to value add to the properties I purchase.