The only disadvantage is that you would pay the HELOC payment to buy time to see what happens. 

Check out the San Antonio Housing Authority site on landlord resources: https://habctx.org/habc-landlo...

This is not a political post, but I can guarantee the first comment is, "I don't pay attention to climate when investing."

My approach now would be to focus on real estate investing and build a portfolio that pays for as much additional education as one desires. 

I would get very close to breakeven, but you are still living for practically free (not counting repairs, maintenance, and management) while paying down the mortgage on a monthly basis.I have never purchased a new property to house hack, but I would run the numbers like any other investment property.

Time is money, sure, anyone can close in 14 days -- and pay for it for years to come.

.- Yeah so Civil Code section 5715 applies to a situation where the homeowner is trying to pay off the debt to the HOA and redeem his / her interest in the property.  

They're fine paying an extra deposit and extra pet fee.

Welcome to the site @Benjamin Keillor!

Sales rep who finds the buyer and get's the down payment to secure the sale gets 20% of the fee.I tried this model when hiring reps and realized it didn't work since I was paying for all the overhead, supplying leads (like you) and the reps were not staying on top of the lead calls.