The oil cycle in ND is a boom/bust cycle and we are well into bust.

They weather the down cycles through good fiscal management and reap the benefits on the up swings.

The more and more I think of it, I am leaning towards just using a portion of the HELOC to put down on a DP on the first property, get it going, then running the cycle again.

I know in many cases landlords don't know about them and just evict everyone and aren't contested, but in the interests of giving you a heads up, it could get ugly if they stick around long enough to get back into the cycle of abuse at your property.

There is literally a regular cycle of real estate investors (and the majority extend their debt as long as possible) going bankrupt.  

I did the same thing 2 years ago and the mortgage company did an off cycle review because of the tax bill change & issued a refund check for the overage.

I'm cycling back to the other paint bids to see if it was included in their bids. 

The "months" that these people spend in the cycle are used to write letters explaining their credit issues (this happened, I got behind, won't happen again) and working through any items that an underwriter might or is questioning, and making sure the borrower is sustaining on a budget that allows savings.

This late in the real estate cycle you can best hedge your downside by investing in value-add properties.

@Solomon GanzI think your ideas and assumptions might have some blind spots and don't properly account for real estate cycles and recessions.