Most are just guys that used to work for someone else and have enough independance to start their own company and if you can bring them consistent work they can match just about anyones price.

Let me start by saying you've made a wise choice to learn more about the real estate industry because it truly is a great vehicle for creating financial independence.

A HELOC is a good way to being able to seize an objectively and independent good investment where you simply would like less $s in the deal or the use of the funds help you be able to do the deal.  

It also provides a fire conduit between units.2) Depending on how the ductwork was run, you may be looking at substantial rework (opening walls, building bulkheads, etc) to separate the two units.If you have a boiler and hydronic heat, there may be a similar degree of effort to separate the plumbing runs - unless the system is new enough to have been installed with independent loops from a common manifold.  

I would recommend NEVER providing tools for your independent contractors. 

I owned an independent insurance agency for 31 years and sold it this year. 

@Scott Malkin Regarding work comp - anyone helping you at or on your 10 unit complex, be it employee, independent contractor, volunteer, or site manager, will most likely have the right to file for work comp benefits if they get hurt.Regarding your tenant.

If so, the rehab could easily exceed your 50K number too.Conservatively since this is your first, I think you should consider seeing it in person and verifying the numbers by getting an agent to run a independent CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) and have a GC (General Contractor) walk it with you to give you an estimate.

Thus, the "quick flips" will be eliminated.Re-sales occurring between 91 and 180 days will be eligible provided that the lender obtains an additional appraisal from an independent appraiser based on a re-sale percentage threshold established by FHA; this threshold would be relatively high so as to not adversely affect legitimate rehabilitation efforts but still deter unscrupulous sellers, lenders, and appraisers from attempting to flip properties and defraud homebuyers.

This unit we are using is independent  - as opposed to being connected back to a central controller which allows you to programme/manage all baseboards from a single location  (these capabilities are available with fancier {read: more expensive}  thermostats).We have acquired several old buildings (Second Empire, Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, etc) with electric resistance heating.