At the time we decided to just take out what was necessary to recover our investment in the property, which amounts to a 70% LTV ($150,000). 

Some people recover, but cutting your body to "improve" your looks?

Recovering the property and removing the tenant / buyer is a much more arduous process than evicting a tenant under normal terms.

I like that the market hasn't recovered too far from the GFC but with the aggressive incentives for business and jobs coming to the area, it feels like an area on the cusp of a Stage 2 Buyer's Market.

Unless the tenant was a federal employee, I expect to never recover a single dime.

But I am a bit worried about the possibility of the housing market tanking in the next few years and than taking even more years to recover.

Profit comes ONLY AFTER you recover all money you put into this from out of your pocket.My suggestion is to not buy rentals...yet. 

It allowed me to then get a HELOC (I had to wait a year or so to get sizable equity), and I was able to "recover" some liquidity from me building more equity with early payments.

A lease Option is a great way to recover cost overruns.

Eventually, find value-add deals (even if you might need to supplement with HML money) that you can rehab and place a tenant, then refinance, allowing you to recover all the money back, and repeat.