"Cash Flow" nowadays seems to be a lot tougher than the years past with rates and home prices (and HOAs) the way they are.

just be cautious when it comes to using these. ensure you've got a plan to pay that balance back in a relatively quick fashion as most HELOC rates can fluctuate which could make the numbers suddenly not work. i've leveraged mine in instances where i'm doing a BRRR and i want the deposit for a private money loan. i'm not using it as my downpayment and leaving it out there for a long period of time. 

Then drop funds on that big coaching price tag.

-Safety and crime rates.

I'd recommend researching areas to see that they have:- Low unemployment- High demand for housing - relatively low inventory- local job creation/booming local economy- high avg/median income- increasing population- low average days-on-market (DOM)- history of rent and property value increases YOY- low crime- highly-rated schools (or above average)I'd compare the target neighborhood to surrounding neighborhoods and/or nearest metro areas. 

Rental rates will likely remain close to their “sticky” highs, especially after the recent corrections seen in quasi-oversupplied markets and consumers will have to pull back elsewhere.Excluding shelter, core inflation has actually been at 2% for some time now.

Even at our crazy rates we could stick frame cheaper than you could buy almost any quality container.  

Minding and managing rates to ensure market competitiveness.2.

@Sean Gammons rising property values & mortgage rates have ended the "easy days" where you could buy anything and rent for cashflow.You're going to have to look harder or go into riskier investments.Prior to the crash of 2008, seasoned investors would look at 100 properties, bid on 10, to hopefully get one deal accepted that met their ROI and CoC requirements.

With about 600,000 sales records spanning 3 states we could tell with some certainty what bids would work and their statistical acceptance rate(s).