You might be better taking a commercial real estate litigation attorney to lunch or just paying for an hour of time.The attorneys generally have case law experience of how these types of things play out with the legal system.You could also try rocket lawyer or legal zoom.People on here just can't answer legal type information or they shouldn't be anyways.

To follow the advise of my mentor, put your cup onif you want to play in this arena!

If you rent it out, you will be playing the appreciation game, like most SFR owners.

My day job is pretty much a professional negotiator so I'll be ready to play ball or walk away. 

Here in NJ property taxes play a huge roll too.

Agent bonus to buyers agent can help too.

I've done the math in the past, and generally it plays out such that going FHA is mathematically identical to having a normal 30YF at 80% LTV, and a hard money 2nd position loan at an interest rate north of 10% for 16.5% LTV (CLTV 96.5%, which most FHA loans are).

From my opinion, HELOCs seem to be a great vehicle for someone who needs cash for a temporary or short term basis, in this situation you can even get an added bonus of only paying interest and deducting the full amount on your taxes, but for an investor who likes to buy and hold long term and lock in risk without variable rates I don't think this is the best option.

Much of it is an appreciation play and not so much cash-flow in my opinion, but still worth paying attention to.

Does the 1% or 2% Rule come into play before subtracting operating expenses from monthly income or after?