Since I undertake a number of projects with passive partners who maintain ownership interest in the LLC, I often have to negotiate this with the banks ahead of time as I customarily solely guarantee the debt and that's my LP's expectation.

There is no current tax on rental income and capital gains.

Living in the worst unit each year and fixing it up-- the equity gain is just going to be phenomenal.

To Sum it up, its a good idea if you can exceed the cost of capital (higher rate than your cost of debt) with what you earn on your heloc/debt you pull out and invest.The question is how much gains above is enough to substantiate the risk of your variable interest rate, well thats up to your personal investing criteria.

So I just wanted to present the raw facts, hear everyone's opinions, and obviously gain some knowledge and tips from investors! 

And some of them are structured in ways where they produce passive income. 

A deal killer has nothing to gain from telling you it's a bad deal.

By working for a larger corporation you are gaining an unfair advantage, by letting them train and develop you (while you are getting paid) and you do real estate on the side.This idea is not from me, read RichDad. 

If you don't care about income and are more of a capital gain kind of guy, prices are already high (as you noticed) and there's plenty of land available to buy so I'm not sure how much is left in the tank.

However, short term rentals are much less passive than long term rentals and are essentially a hospitality business, which is in and of itself required a whole additional layer of knowledge and expertise.With regard to your question about private lenders, it’s important to draw a distinction in terminology between “private” and “hard money.”