There are some pine trees in the back yard that may need to be cut down.

Rent out your units at, or slightly below, the market rate and gradually increase rents YOY (2-2.5%).This strategy will allow you to get your foot in the door with a low down payment AND less competition.

Remember that in any 1031 exchange:           - what property(ies) you buy have to be worth at least as much as what you've sold (net of closing costs but not net of mortgage)          - all of your equity ($2.4M) needs to go as down payment on what property(ies) you buy1031s are not good at deleveraging. 

This payment will leave me with about $600,000 in W-2 income for 2024.

Sound like a good idea or would you guys recommend doing a home equity loan and leaving the rate and payments

I did a Rent to own offer spread out over 4 yrs 10k  down payment in the form of 200 dollar monthly installments in that 4 yr period, paid alongside the monthly rent.

I have no fears in getting a bank approval, and it down payment is not an issue either.

How would I actually go about accessing the HELOC funds for the down payment?

We closed on the sale of the property Thursday at a sale price of $1.7 million with $412,000 down and a 2 year balloon note (with options to extend) for $1,288,000 at 9.999% interest with interest only monthly payments.  

In these real estate deals you are dealing with 10s of thousands of dollars and when things go wrong on a thin budget is when you see dumpster fires and hear the cautionary tales.Most new investors concentrate solely on the down payment when in reality there's lots of costs: Closing costs, Holding Costs, Utilities Cost, you'll have to lay out money to the contractor for them to start the project, and there's taxes and insurance there's transfer tax title costs.More capital than you think is needed.