Sometimes a good business opportunity will come along, something as simple as a coffee kiosk at a low lease cost somewhere high traffic that can make a good cash flow. 

So, I made the mistake of listening to my mother to said, "don't buy anything you have to clothe and feed" and I sold my 6 homes and invested $1 million into a syndicated real estate deal for 2 K-Mart shopping centers and lost every exactly $1 million plus another $50,000 for attorney fees.I started earning 20 times as much money when I stopped taking advice from real estate brokers.

You may want to shop the policy both for RC and for ACV and find out if there is a policy with RC that will be affordable. 

Big learning lesson here, always shop around.

I don't do HELOC's I will refer to the right shop. 

Give them a call and shop for rates - just dont have them your credit until you've made the final decision.

Is it too late to shop around for mortgage rates (20 year conventional/ 20% down)? 

Once you know your target house price, then I would shop around lenders, you can either use referrals from families and friends, or you can use online mortgage broker websites to compare rates.

Thanks again, hopefully we'll be neighbors soon and get together for a coffee or so - sounds good? 

Had a hard time following the story, maybe not enough coffee this AM.