The Pearl is predicted to turn this area to a GLOBAL medical hotspot- forever changing Charlotte!

It's doesn't really sound like you are much into being landlords so doing a 1031 might just change from "annoying when things come up" to full fledged head aches when you buy more and or larger properties in your current market.

You have used home equity lines of credit to purchase investment rentals and want to know the best way to pay down the HELOCs.Between the two properties you bought, after expenses, you have $250 a month positive cashflow to use.What I like to do is pay down some principal every month with my positive cashflow.I use my extra active income from real estate commissions helping other investors to pay down the principal even more which just frees up that credit for me to use again.I know I can refinance the HELOC debt before it changes to principal and interest as it is just interest only payments as yours are.One difference is the cashflow, I have greater positive cashflow and could make the principal and interest payment in the future with the extra cashflow I already enjoy.I always get HELOCs on my income properties as well after purchasing them to pull out as much of my downpayment as possible.

Sometimes life happens faster than you think (weddings, job changes, market shifts), so it helps to know your break even point in case you need to move on sooner rather than later.

Well, this my opinion, if you like unpredictability, constant change and people/contractors with no regards to you or your property then "YES" flips and STRs are the way to go...LOL....I love it!!! 

I also have few loans with flagstar and would like to explore changing from personal name to LLC.

The biggest change was in the Road's End neighborhood.

.: @Nathan Gesner   Hmmmm....thanks for asking....i thought there was a law change quite a while back, maybe over 10 years ago, which prohibited smaller landlords like me for getting SS#s. 

Away from the coast, no hurricanes, fires, floods - we don't even have snowstorms anymore.People can deny climate change all they want or blame it on sun cycles, and frankly, it does not even matter, the reality is that insurance cost will force the issue.You can try to rebuild and you can put houses on stilts in flood areas, or fortify them against high winds and fires, but that makes it expensive.

Sometimes the asking price does not reflect what's actually going on, there's a tenant, there's a change in the seller's situation, etc.