@Laureen Youngblood, that is nuts that you have to be licensed to lay tile!

If you already 'get it' - that the only way to work is not for someone else after getting a college education, or that acquiring a house or two every year will make you wealthy - then I'd get to nuts and bolts about how and what to buy.  

Thanks, John.Your thoughtful answer clarified more than just the nuts and bolts of these strategies. 

We use to say that all the nut cases congregated there and know at one point the school district lost its accreditation which did a number on property value.

The most fruitful networking event I have been to is the Real Estate Roundtable series put on locally by my university.  

It has proved fruitful and it's also a great tool, but I prefer the HELOC overall because in a cash out refi, there's additional closing costs (more than a HELOC), and there's more scrutiny to getting that cash.

When covid first started, many of the owners of STR here either put a long term tenant in there just to cover their nut or sold them (and are now kicking themselves!!...

I have three children in Castleberry, and the district drives me nuts!

Improving that vacancy rate is just some of the low hanging fruit.

It was a very fruitful endeavor for the period of time I was able to do it.