It's not a bad commute, maybe about 50 mins. 

My boyfriend and I currently own a rental property in Pittsburgh and we are planning to move to CA next summer for career opportunities.

LOL.. figured with my Tesla I have no gas.. and I get bored sometimes so I though maybe I give folks a ride around and socialize a little. .. but then when I read the fine print that I had to accept dogs.. that was a no go in Oregon they would be wet and smelly and muddy.. so my lyft career never lyfted off LOL.. on a side note.. one gig I like that is real estate related for those looking for extra money is that of a transaction coordinator realtors really rely on those folks and you don't have to drive anywhere  computer great scanner and some skills.. my wife pays her 400.00 a file.. and she closed over 30 files last year.. so that's just one realtor and her coordinator has many realtors I bet she makes well over 100k a year from her home.. ( now she is very good I want to emphasize that ) 

Hi @Aimee Gaede,Too bad you aren't in NYC. 

My fear with doing the latter is the fact that a HELOC is looked at like any other revolving line of credit and that would badly impact my DTI...any thoughts?

I've done a bit of research on them and they don't seem so bad to me.

Is that my bad? 

This is not an upscale neighborhood, plenty of people have average lawns, and the cost of re-sodding when it is time to sell is not that bad.

These will be my first two properties and it will give me a way in the industry, but I also don't want to make a bad financial decision.

Giving up so much money upfront is bad business.