I think the online course would have been more difficult if I had no prior real estate exposure. 

Difficult to believe that out of 500 offers you have not been able to close a deal.

My firm also allowed me to take a loan of up-to 50% of my 401K balance.

The 2 current occupants are CHA so another concern of mine is that if I lose them I don't know how difficult it is to get quality tenants.

The most difficult is picking a direction and then comes the 2nd most difficult part, staying with it.

this is a tough one.... one school of thought is take the 3 million do a 1031 and buy a property that you do not need partners for and call it a day.I have a property IN Ca  exact same price range  3 mil value I bought for 25k 25 years ago.. my inclination is to just get my cash and not take ANY risk to market... we buy development ground from owners to build our subdivisions I find it very difficult to talk owners into partnering.. simply for the reasons above.. end the day moving the money tax deferred and not being locked into partners and being junior to a HUGE amount of debt dissuades folks from this route.

I did quite a bit of research when I heard about the HELOC to pay off you mortgage and then using that account as your main account to funnel all your income and expenses in/out of etc etc.....the principle is that you will have on average a lower balance that your are paying interest on each month etc.....and read a lot about comparing that method vs just applying extra principle to your mortgage.

So the idea of flipping is very difficult due to expected time on market and approved buyers available.

If not it is difficult as the HOA is not supposed to reveal this to others.

Arthur Voskanyan  A cash out refi is generally a first lien 30 year fixed rate VS a HELOC is 10 years interest only second lien with a variable rateRates depend on the loan amount, your credit, if you occupy the property, the loan balance, ect @Chris Mason should be able to provide you specifics