Any advice or pointers will be greatly appreciated as we make our first step into securing our first investment.

The sponsor argues that they get credit for bringing the millions of financing their reputations allows them to secure to get the project done.

HELOCs typically function exactly like a credit card except thy are secured by the property you are borrowing against, whereas a normal credit card is unsecured.

They may do it with just a lower LTV 60-70%.If they wont give you the HELOC I dont see why they wouldnt just let you open up a secured line of credit with the duplex being the collateral

It is a great resource for education and networking.There are any number of agents from the Cleveland area who are regular contributors to BP. 

Your wisest course of action is to see if you could have the keys to your new place a couple of days early (after you have paid 1st months rent and security deposit) to allow you time to move.

Are you referring to CPAs or regular in-house accounting for your real estate?

Since maintenance and repair costs aren't stable or regular, we need to at minimum save for when these expenses do occur.In more expensive markets and higher renting properties we need to save a smaller percentage.

I am curious to how the security deposit gets transferred when inheriting a tenant. 

The best way in securing a partner is to provide value to them, or prove you have the knowledge or expertise that makes it worth their time to "get in bed" with you.