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. 

Renovations are high cost items 

Hey Zachary I think it's essential to look beyond mere interest rate differentials and focus on strategic benefits, particularly if scaling your portfolio is a long term goal.Key considerations:Pre-payment penalties: Determine if the HELOC has any penalties, impacting your flexibility payoff.Scaling strategy: Evaluate the scalability and limitations of each financing option.Advantage of HML: Allows scaling without hard credit pulls, and no pre-payment penalties.Holding costs: Factor in not just interest rate differences but also ancillary expenses as well as overall goals of scaling.Example scenario:Property purchase for $120,000 with $30,000 renovation.

First, determine what your lender offers in terms of Loan-to-Cost (LTC) for acquisitions and the maximum Loan-to-Value (LTV) for a seasoned cash-out refinance.

If you're established enough as an investor that you're already doing projects and own assets, it's highly likely that taking the time to save 10 cents per letter by doing it yourself is not worth your time.

Additionally, you can rent it out for a minimum of 3 months (high season in Florida), 2x per year which is very investor friendly.

While you can use the SBA program (504 or 7a) for certain real estate acquisitions - self storage, hotel and/or RV Park/campground properties (gets tricky), rentals would not work.

I'm in the Pacific Northwest where home prices are quite high.

In tax sale despite the positive hype of high interest and low risk there is significant risk in tax sale.

After you have a contract at the numbers that work for them, they will fund acquisition and rehab, take the risk, and split profits on the backend.