My vote is invest in other markets where the money makes sense and then take that profit to visit whenever you like. 

@Tobi Isaacs this would be better answered by other investors in your market. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or advice on this approach.Thank you in advance for your insights! 

Is this using a 20% down, conventional or DSCR loan, although I would think a first time investor would use a conventional loan.

BP forum messed up my post. was going to say this: I use eggshell for all of my own properties.

The amount of equity I call pull is less than the cash I have but not significantly less.When doing this analysis it struck me that it may not be worth using a HELOC for the simple fact that the interest rate is ~9%* while the funds in my high yield account are only yielding ~5%*.

Now consider this: all the groups people are spending fortunes to target—foreclosures, absentee owners, probate leads, tax liens—what do they have in common?

Our CPA told us that we would not be able to deduct interest from a HELOC if the funds were used for anything other than improving the property in which the equity is the source of the loan.  

Use that as a small down payment to siblings.

Bullet 1 points to the folly of this thinking.