I would be interested to hear others' experience as well.

The interest rate on a HELOC or Heloan may be better than the personal loan. 

Hopefully rents start going up 2nd Qtr and into 2026 and 2027.What price range do you want to be in? 

You mentioned gross rents of $3400 per month and Principle/Interest/Tax/Insurance of $2500 per month. 

I'm also thinking of turning a room downstairs into a bedroom with a simple wall.The TH is actually across from UCSD, not SDSU.  

From there we identify properties that could have some potential and if you are interesting in diving deeper, 1) we do a thorough video walkthrough to give you a realistic look of the property, 2) we give a ballpark estimate of rehab costs (we do 40 a year with our GCs o we will get pretty close), 3) we talk through market rent with our property management team, ARV, and potential highest and best use.Ideally you find great investor agents who know their market really well and have a network of resources to provide you with enough confidence to take reasonable action. 

It could even be (more) interesting from a lifestyle point of view as you'll get to stay in different cities/houses every time you go.

Case and point--a bear kept getting into our dumpster. 

It does seem very interesting (and lucrative), but also overwhelming!

This could be an opportunity to share what you've learned.