You want this to be your backup plan if things take longer than anticipated, you do not want to dip into personal credit cards so i would use a heloc to help with down payment but try to keep a nice available balance on a heloc as your insurance policy. 

PS is revolutionary because of how it has simplified access to all of the various data points investors need to make a decision and because of this its extremely popular.You do not want to be using a popular lead source to increase deals because everyones chasing the same deals.And nothing will change with there data because there business model forces them to have to buy and license the data they get which means waiting for the county/databroker to send it to them which guarantees anyone using PS data will be behind the counties, only getting a fraction of the leads and getting those late leads the same time as everyone else.How do you get access to the leads first.

Quote from @Erick Pena: A "good" rental property is one that covers all expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, property management fees, and any other costs) and still leave a surplus (commonly referred to as cash flow).Calculate cash flow as: Cash Flow = Rental Income − Operating Expenses − DebtThere's much more to it, but that's the basic idea.

With insurance rates going up, best to find areas with the lowest operating cost.

Low down payment (3.5%) is attractive, but comes with mortgage insurance and might not offer the best rates.

That's easy compared to trying to fight and erroneous $13k water bill (a real issue we had) or an insurance policy tripling (that too).

Great Lakes Credit Union HSBC 70%, for premier clients only Huntington 75% LTV Hurst Lending and Insurance Investment property HELOC in Texas.

I would be happy just throwing my money into index funds if that makes the most sense, I'm just not well educated in the area of passive income enough to feel confident in any decision. 

You should allow a 1-2 Weeks for the appraisal, and 1-2 weeks for title and insurance.

These programs offer options for less money down and in some cases DPA - Down payment assistance.As a banker for over 18+ years I am very skeptical when I hear a new name in the business only because its become tougher to lend with all of the new laws and credit/insurance requirements and regulations.