part of LA in which you can't make any changes to a house without city's consent, weird huh...it's coming well slowly but steady, 1st become an RE agent, to have access to properties and slowly make the transition to investing?

I use a realtor's access code to the MLS to research comps.

Ok, perhaps not that complicated but requires you to go that extra mile anyway vs. just purchasing as an individual.I do agree that home equity is usually cheaper money but there are a few reasons I can think of to use a mortgage on the investment property instead: (1) you will continue looking for other investments in which case, access to maximum cash via your HELOC may be important; (2) you *may* end up with positive net income on the property without having the mortgage writeoff - this means a visit from the tax man.

also - when you run an income and expense analysis of a property - if it's an apt complex or multi-family or even a SFH rental - and has been for a few years - getting all those numbers should be a contingency or part of a binder - allowing you access to the sellers income and expense data for the past 2 to 3 years...of course, being an investor yourself - you've got to remember the number one rule for investing (for us anyway) - DON'T TRUST THE SELLER.

I have online access to my county's Public Trustee's records database, but I'm having trouble finding any Notice of Default etc records.

How to you plan on access the second lot?

Fortunately, in our network, we have gained recent access to a large USA-based investment fund that is investing in large-scale development projects.

You could access this information through a buyers agent as Triton stated.

Anyway to access any of the cash you'll have to pay tax on any cash that you do realize.

I'd prefer that it be sold now to avoid rentor/access problems, but think that even a year from now could possibly get a few more thousand, but there's also other building soon to be started in the close proximity, so selling now is probably best.