Given your background, especially with your general contractor's license and hands-on experience with rehabs, transitioning more into real estate seems like a natural progression.Here are a few thoughts:Potential of Real Estate vs.

My experience is that it is possible, but more expensive and difficult to find, a HELOC on an investment property.  

But after doing a lot of reading/research, thinking we want to focus more on LT for the next few deals.

Does anyone have good experience with a STR in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico? 

We negotiated directly with the seller, leveraging our experience to agree on a deal that provided both parties with value, ultimately leading to a smooth and profitable transaction.

But everything I've read says you can't actually get a HELOC on a rental property in Texas.We're also not really interested in refinancing the Texas home - as we've got a 2.5% rate on it and any refinance at current rents would turn it into a cash-flow negative asset.Anyway - we think if we moved some other investments around we might be able to find the $137K to pay off the loan outright - owning the land. 

How has your experience been investing in this market or with this strategy? 

I hope someone with experience can help.The property is a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom house according to public records, but the current owner converted it into a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom about 10 years ago without permits and updates to the records.Questions: I'm planning to use a conventional loan.

Yes...some states are what we call tax lien states, some are tax deed states and some states are hybrid.You can read more about CT tax sales here:  http://cttaxsales.com/http://cttaxsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/GENERAL-INF...

Read "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene to better understand how to find a market and do things from a distance.