Then purchase a Note, generate $250 - $300/mo tax free!

IF you have super strong income and you and have a lower 1st lien, lots of equity - MAYBE your best bet is using a local bank or CU to get most competitive HELOC inv terms.

I currently have a pre-tax retirement account with employer match and a Roth IRA invested in the stock market.

Now I am inheriting a huge fixer-upper in Dallas which we will probably live in for a few years after it is repaired.My ideal situation with REI is to buy and hold multiple properties while also flipping a few per year to supplement our income.

The proposed rent from the income property can possibly help you qualify as well. 

My son and I used to do tax deed and mortgage foreclosure recovery, and we were running through over 1,000 traces a month.

I  Income:  The amount of property you can buy will be dependent on your Debt to Income ratio.  

Another neat little piece of VA loans is that they can allow for higher DTI ratios than conforming/fha loans because they primarily rely on residual income and not directly on DTI (it's complicated, but this will do for now).

The trend has been increasing amounts of credit card debt, but not as big of a jump as disposable income on a macro level. 

What's your income and how much money do you have in the bank would be the first thing I would consider.