Just a little humor there but one thing too is that since the subject came up about banks and writing pre-approval letters, etc one goal to have (and I'm not certain here and don't have time now to read the posts again, but it sounds like you don't have the HELOC yet, BUT you at least think you've got a fair shot at getting one-i.e. no awful credit score, no bad customer rating at the bank(s) you bank with, etc) it is GREAT if you can build a relationship with the bank and often the smaller banks (like a regional or local to your metro area sized bank or smaller size bank) are better at this vs the MEGA BANKS, but sometimes if you find the right people at the MEGA BANK they can play ball too, I'd suggest a smaller bank though, if you can build a relationship with them and really often with one or just a few key people there, that relationship over time can pay dividends far beyond just the rigid "rules for lending and biz loans" might lead many to think.Especially in the regional and smaller banks, they'll usually have a loan committee that meets to go over any somewhat substantial biz loan and maybe in a few years or 5, 10 years-whatever time frame you've learned the ropes and pushed ahead and now have this ball rolling and are really ready to make the jump to something not just the next step up, but maybe several steps up, having someone or a few people on that loan committee or who have the ear of the committee saying "Hey this John Ford's a smart, hard working, organized guy who just always makes things work, he deserves a little extra look here for this next loan, I think he's a risk worth taking, solid guy!"

This deserves it own post.

The capitalist system is natural and gives incentive to inventors to find solutions and they deserve the financial reward of saving people's lives.Fear-mongers not worth responding to.John -  has your view changed?  

Now, of course you can try to convince the investors you deserve some equity, too.

@Jarod Rotolo if they cannot see that you deserve at least the equity up until the point you stopped contributing to the mortgage than court may be your best option.

I would love to see every tenant enjoy the benefits of a dishwasher, but the reality is, many of them just don't deserve having one.

And I certainly hope you dont believe that just because YOU personally havent experienced something first hand that it makes it invalid or somehow less deserving of discussion. 

I was very poor growing up myself and my family was evicted numerous times and we deserved it every time.

I know I have been blessed more than I deserve and I just dont want to screw this up.

I too was glad to see the mayor get what he deserves.