We are planning to build a portfolio of single family homes in a tough area and want to line upa steady steam of tenants if possible.Thanks in advance for you help and advice.

I don't know about real estate prices but where I'm at it's been raining steady for three days and I'm starting to worry.

compare the two in terms of total payments.If you have lots of equity and not much steady(W2) income, HELOC may work better.

Looking at cash flow, in most cases it tends to be a more steady and predictable form of income as rents tend to fluctuate less and don't tend to drop off a cliff but rather will adjust slowly.

And probably faster than rental increases.The City and County Assessor are politically progressive, so low income neighborhood real estate tax increases have been moderate.

@Kyle Zaylor , I met up with @Adam Hofmann personally too because he was the first one I met on BP who was ready to not just talk.. but start meeting up, executing on goals, get things shaking..I can see already by your post on your progress Adam that you don't f*ck around!

As long as you can show a steady income they can calculate over the past 2 years, you should be okay. 

it's been 2 months ... have you made progress? 

I am all for progress.

While all this is going on, you will need to be working this way you have steady income coming in.