@Chris Mason It's a little bit confusing: before we file taxes, the rental income considered 75% from gross rentals - for qualification my incomeAfter I file tax return, the bottom line will be much less than 75% of gross because all these HOA, taxes, insurance, depreciation will be subtracted and it might be 10-15% of the gross rents as my taxable incomeIs it better to apply for financing before I file taxes or I'm wrong at counting the income?

@Christopher PetersenI noticed the Forbes article is from 2014 , it doesn’t mention when this was supposed to happen but we of course have seen demand and prices go way up nationwide since then .I am skeptical about the articles written in the mainstream press on real estate since they have been wrong so many times .

Correct me if i am wrong, A HELOC is like a credit card in the means that you only pay interest on what you use. you can access it over and over again and pay it off over and over again but you don't pay interest on anything more than what you pulled out. where the cash out refinance is a loan so if you don't invest every penny into something then you are paying interest on money you aren't using.

Please I am very unfamiliar with the tax codes in general. so, i am say something completely wrong just correct me. please bear with.Why did I think that?

Last inspection on a property the furnances needed to be replaced (we didn't go to renegociate we kept with the current price)Please correct me if I'm wrong and that policy turns off agents. 

Are we making the right decision by trying to utilizing the equity in our primary or going about this all wrong?

@Austin J.There are definitely a couple things wrong here.

I'm sure it'll be the same for you down in SoCal.Great, now it's 2 months in the future, most of those comps have closed, and you know EVERYTHING wrong with them!

On the other hand though... it kind of feels like I'm probably doing something wrong here. 

Given the consequence of being wrong (i.e. - managing a rental ends up being viewed as a "service" means we have a PT and a busted IRA) , I advise clients not to do anything that "could be a service".