My husband and I decided to purchase our first property in Round Rock, TX for STR.

Leadzolo is a good option too, leads are $179 per lead and round robin so they don't sell the same lead to mutiple investors

Depends on markets of course, so if you are a HCOL area with high list prices, this may be out of reach even with 100k+ to put down (while you can get away with less, this may create a problem with too high of a PMI and overall mortgage payment). 

Without an exact numbers breakdown of each option (which should obviously be my next step), I think my ideal situation would be to sell the SF and roll the equity into this, leaving me with a modest holding cost that I can absorb with my stable W2, and keeping the HELOC for any larger ticket items I need during rehab.

Don't care if you get covid, have a wedding to go to, have season tickets, have a day job, etc. 

I just want them to be completely informed before pulling that "Big Ticket" trigger.

I'm guessing you can get away with this somehow, but what happens if you default on the new loan?

There's still ways you could get away with it at a higher confidence level but it's not 100% fool proof.See news for more on Marley: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/pinellascounty/st-pe...Feel free to DM if you have further questions. 

It handles all my maintenance tickets, communication with tenants, rental payments, screening, receipt tracking, listing etc (I haven’t used the listing service yet but they offer it for free).

Do laminate, but also see if you can get a rounded edge.