My father is a contractor so we will be able to complete most of the work ourselves while keeping costs low and add equity.

., but there’s some good news for renters: local rents have dropped to a 3-year low, with decreases of up to $200.

Maybe I'm no longer a low risk bond investor, maybe I'm parking my money in $VOO instead, CRE REITs, or perhaps higher risk higher return bonds. 

All original tenants were long term low rent tenants.

These range low 500s to the mid 600s.  

I will say that during that time, the HELOC interest rates were very low.  

We recently relocated to Phoenix last summer and I'm starting to look for recommendations for local credit unions here in Phoenix which are trustworthy, low rates, personal touch, easy/simple to work with, etc. 

I think there's a pretty low bar for competency in the management business because it's not glamorous and can be a grind.

Would you rather set it and forget it and not need to refi again or rather take advantage of low/no closing costs on this loan and plan to be more aggressive on your rate at the time of your refi?

In this type of situation, they want low interest rate with low down payment also.