Especially if its a personal residence.

Is this for a primary residence or investment property?

This has been OK'ed by the IRS (in 2012).In your situation, in which you want to use the sales proceeds to buy another primary residence, there's a little more to this in order to structure it correctly.

Even the lowest priced house still needs to offer any future resident safety and this area can lead to various very undesirable legal liabilities for the owner/seller.

New update on the BH&J Rent vs Buy Index. https://business.fau.edu/departments/finance/real-estate-initiative/bhj-buy-vs-rent-index/bhj-summary/Interesting to note that most major markets have officially crossed over, where renting your residence and reinvesting what you would've spent on a home makes more financial sense than buying.

Homestead is only for a primary residence , investment property does not qualify

Even if I don't do this deal, I am working with a lender to refi my primary residence so I can get my FHA back and do a 203k on a duplex, so I'm going to need an agent soon. 

I find many lenders will not do a HELOC on a property that is not the primary residence or a vacation home so I'm struggling to figure out a strategy to get a down payment for an investment. 

I'm planning on moving out of my primary residence in a few months. 

I've been very fortunate enough to be able to buy a house as a primary residence every time I move to a new duty location...except for my last duty station.