We have an opportunity to support lobbying efforts to enact changes that will be good for the community and to block proposed changes that could be detrimental.

If this "HELOC," is on your subject property (the property you're rehabbing and bought with cash) then yes you'll have to wait 6 months.DFE can only be done within 6 months if the property has no liens (paid w/ cash, ) so adding the HELOC was detrimental to your plan and in effect would turn this paid in cash property to a financed property.This is why its important to have someone who knows what they are doing on the mortgage end to plan with to streamline your processes.

Insurance may or may not satisfy the plaintiff's demands or the judgement entered against you.Business entity structures are there to prevent or lessen the impact of litigation should someone believe they have cause to sue and reduce the likelihood of that litigation being prosecuted successfully.

As an investor in real estate we too should be mindful of how this season will impact us as well.  

Unless you want to be responsible for watering your landscape or letting it die which not only diminishes the value of your property but impacts the neighborhood as a whole.

Helping tenants with things that are against your business rules will impact your business success.

Everyone involved needs to know anything which may have an impact on their standing in the deal.Yet another reason to get educated - you're quite right.

For us we were able to scrap enough to buy a house often enough that not selling our precious few houses didn't negatively impact us.

@Kyle Vandever I would definitely consider duplexes, though 4-plexes/small apartments have more initial appeal to me (less impact of a single vacancy on cashflow and fewer locations for the same number of units).  

I'm ready to move to the next level and have been actively looking for multifamily properties, but I have been very cautious (sometimes to my detriment) moving forward.