@Doug Norton other critical issues include: decreasing availability of water and increasingly poor air quality, and an impending earthquake that is anticipated to cause significant total loss rates for the un-reinforced masonry buildings that make up much of the housing stock in the city...obviously, nobody knows when that will occur, but geologists generally agree that the earthquake is a matter of "when", not "if" (yet, my impression is that very few property owners have earthquake insurance)...it's hard to know how these issues will play out, but there is evidence that one or more of these issues will become un-ignorable on a 10-30+ year timeline.ADUs are an interesting prospect, but the last time I got quotes for building an ADU in SLC, the numbers really didn't make much sense in terms of ROI as a long term rental...of course, people build ADUs for reasons other than ROI, so it will be interesting to see what happens...Between the world-class outdoor attractions, events like Sundance Film Fest, and all the other attractions of the city and surrounding area, I would think that demand for STRs could be pretty huge...the city doesn't allow STRs, but as you mentioned, that doesn't stop people from doing them, and my impression is that some folks have cleaned up using ADUs as STRs...As with any place, the SLC RE market is highly localized, and there's a solid argument that the desirable neighborhoods (the Aves, the U, Sugarhouse, E Millcreek, and most stuff on the E side) will always be in high demand--everyone wants to live in these areas, and there's limited supply. 

Carpentry skills by themselves are not that critical.

Those are critical in our experience in NB. 

Those items become even more critical to be aware of.

with alot of the big non QM and non owner occ lenders pausing.. having a go to lender that will actually process and close refi's or new purchases is going to be critical to the non owner occ side of the business.. 

It is critical that you ask around for the reputation of the person you are considering doing business with.

And the beam/header/post sizes are critical....

Criticism very much welcomed...Price: $120,000    Down payment: $30,000   Est Closing costs: 5%: $6000   Est repairs: $20,000 (All funded by HELOC: $56,000 )Conservative rent in the area $1600.00PITI: $777.00PM: $150Vac Rate : 8% ($125)Maintenance/repair/capex: $200HELOC interest pymt:  $350.00A conservative ARV would be approx $190,000Is there any circumstance where this can work?

Many RE investors write off RE debt as carrying no risk but it is 100% a risk and should be evaluated (many deals wouldn't be deals without it; making them too risky for me).Joe's approach is the safest approach as it takes the approach of focusing on net cashflow which drives successful businesses (RE investing is a business), and therefore is often critical to sustaining operations or growing.In summary both are right both have there places.

It seems like genuine human connection across many types of folks is a very critical part to success.