We've been managing these properties for 6.5 years and this would offer a financial cushion for buyer, and maintain the comfort of residents having the same management they're used to.What do you think?

I have a lender and a little money but not enough to meet a 33k cushion and 100k bridge to cover the 70/30gap.

Here are the monthly allocations (+10% cushion for vacancy): taxes (TTM/12), vacancy/turnover 5% GSR, water/sewer/trash (TTM/12), repair/maintenance (10%), cap ex (3%-goes to money market monthly), CAM (lawn/snow) (3%), insurance (TTM/12), debt service (actual), property mgmt (12% - although I self manage).   

What would you do if you had enough to buy the home but not enough, or maybe not quite enough of a comfort level to self-fund both the rehab plus a cushion?  

But if you are just going to use it to stack up some extra cash-cushion, be aware that it will likely have a long term impacts on your ability to obtain future financing.

I doubled the time line I thought I could get us to financial freedom to give me cushion for mistakes etc.  

Now you could have 2 houses appreciating at the same rate - and the new investment being a rental would produce income and depreciation to cover most of the interest expense and other holding cost on the investment loan.To ensure you can meet any shortfall in holding costs you should leave some undrawn cushion in the HELOC which you can draw on if needed.

This ensures there’s a cushion to protect your capital if the market shifts or a project’s budget or timeline doesn’t go as initially planned.Look for a Fund managed by a company with lots of experience in the fix and flip market, not just real estate in general.

We already have cheap money so there is some cushion for layoffs etc. and real estate will be perceived as a better, safer bet than stocks. 

Therefore, we have quit a bit of cushion even in the event of a downturn.