And even then, the life cycle is generally pretty long from first contact to closing.  

If the figure of $1200 is being floated on the listing it’s highly possible the current owner is locked in and grandfathered at this price and even if you get a policy with the same insurance company your policy will be significantly more expensive.

Don't take out a HELOC Jason, it's not worth the time it takes for the amount of money you need.

Some of those may even be competent and know how to underwrite deals and sponsors. 

Even high density local population areas I would not want since most don’t make that much money.  

Not even 1 deal yet.

This is advantageous bc later you have a third party loan (not your personal money) so seasoning period is 90 days to DSCR out. 

There are lenders that do not have this requirement of course, but they are mainly hard money lenders or local portfolio style banks. 

It was an easy way to scale up with no money out of pocket.

While I am a lender, I personally use hard money on all of my own investment projects.