You have to make sure lender will not try to reduce proceeds to the loan amount instead of you having the credit for replacements.The reducing the loan amount might be saving you 20 bucks a month so means nothing versus the 50k credit from the seller.Most mom and pop tenants live hand to mouth and if you shock them with a big expense that raises overall cam above base rent by a few dollars a foot it can send them into a tailspin.

As an example, you'd maybe spend half your HELOC and cash on hand as down payment and then have the rest of your HELOC as money for rehab. 

@Ryan H. and @Ibrahim Hughes thank you for your replies.

Additionally, should I even bother submitting an offer on a property without proof of funds being submitted at the same time, or will the seller likely reject the offer without seeing the cash on hand up front?

The estoppel certificate is a form filled out with the tenant, confirmed by the Landlord, and then handed to you as the buyer.

As a broker/agent, until I have a signed offer in hand with proof of funds, there's nothing to discuss.

That said I would definitely try to find one of the handful of negative threads on here that I've seen in the past.

Get their advice before you do anything.Personally, if the cops were to give me the go-ahead, I would go in there with boots and a coat and heavy gloves, with a club in my hand, and do as little damage to the pit bull as I had to in order to get to right bathroom shutoff valve.

You are profiting off of raising rents and handing the expense of doing so over to the taxpayers of Ca.

The dealer spreads it out, moves their hands back, then picks it up and drops it in to the bin.