With an owner-occupied loan, you can buy a house with 0-5% down and get 30-year fixed rate financing so you're not dealing with adjustable rates if rates go back up and not dealing with a balloon payment in 6-24 months which is plenty of time for an experienced investor but not a whole lot if you're new. 

My lender did not need an appraisal for the Heloc, but yours might.

Forming an LLC for your rental property can offer liability protection, but no real tax benefit.

Support - I hired an RE attorney @ $350 hourly.

The decade preceding it was just an outlier. 

@Ajay Bodas Transferring a 1031 exchange property from a revocable trust to an LLC can be done, but timing is crucial to avoid IRS scrutiny.

I love living in CA, but if you're an investor and like to have your properties in LLCs, it kind of suck. $800 yearly tax for each LLC.

Hopefully your accountant did not file an 8824 reporting the 1031 exchange. 

I recently came across an opportunity to help a builder with their financing.

I'm hoping to do an FHA 203(k) within the first half of this year and eventually rent it out after living in it for about 2 years.