I'm not seeing my prices go up like that due to anything (we build millions per year) .

Added Kitchen, Bedroom, Laundry and designed it to be unique and an attractive value to tenants while competing against apartment amenities.

When my kids get older that may become a more attractive option.Doesn't making payments on the HELOC negate any profit from the second property? 

For buy and holds, you are entitled to depreciate the full cost of the property (less the portion allocable to land), and not just the down payment (i.e. if you buy property for $1 million but only pay $200,000 the full $1 million is depreciable- as long as none of that is allocated to land). 

(just pretend to be looking for an apartment)Many like to Greige the walls, and if you find 2 or 3 you can get an idea of what they think will be popular cabinet and counter colors in your area with Agreeable Gray (a form of Greige).For comparison, many public assistance projects use Navajo White or some for of it, because they don't have to worry about attracting renters.

So bottom line is out of area investor with 25 to 30k can get in the game.. and that is the attraction.. were 25 to 30k in the high priced markets not so much.. and then you have others that have more wherewithal than that and they scale it .. bottom line investors chasing yield.If investors can get a 5% return in CA.. as opposed to 5% in the mid west what would they do..

Think about it as if you were the lender and you had someone in your position who was going to be locked up without a stable income for the next 4ish years and a good credit score but with little to no credit history who wanted to borrow a million dollars plus.

@Laura Sulak I was briefly looking at Temple and the prices are attractive.

If you do go that route, make sure you have great insurance AND an multi-million dollar umbrella on the building and yourself.

It allows you to buy properties for less, because of their condition, improve their value, attract better tenants and create equity in the process.