After selling you have a gain of $125k and net proceeds of $150k. 

I understand that you avoid capital gains taxes doing it this way.

I hope you find some good properties to reinvest your nice gain.

You pay NO taxes on the gain...  

so good to be back. ever since I signed up to this website I have learned a lot and gain so many connections.

He wants a lower tax rate (including capital gain) in return for fewer write offs; he's trying to simplify the tax code.  

Then once we decided to get into real estate more seriously we got the HELOC and used that as downpayment for the next flat.We wanted to use it to get a 3rd one but the bank said no, so I will let my two flats collect some more equity while i gain more experience and I will try the bank later once I have a longer history with them and they trust me more.In the mean time Im now learning about fundraising and moving to Dubai will mean I get to get more leverage there in some time.

Every phone call is going to be a different situation and you will gain something different by each one of those conversations.

I may decide to sell 2 or 3 of them a year, generally profiting less than $1,000 on each, after holding each property for at least one year.Two questions: In your opinion, would I be subject to self employment taxes on the profits from the sale of these properties (considered a real estate dealer), or long-term capital gains (investor)?

Things have been going pretty well so far, and we are trying to diversify and gain new clients.