That would be a perfect move for HELOC money in my portfolio, as it wouldn't max my line, and the goal is to repay after improving the property, ideally under a year.  

Life is not perfect.

@Tracy Cooper It is a perfectly fine way to get started if you are not a professional services provider.

If they happen to cut corners and have placed a bad tenant, OR if they placed a perfectly good tenant and set bad habits, OR if they did something like set an expectation of below market rent with a perfectly good tenant then you get all of that.So, reduced risk with all the seller's habits wrapped up in it, or increased front-end risk with none of that.It's not always that simple, but sometimes it is :) 

This one may sound like an impossible scenario but it worked perfectly.

@Ian Waters perfect.

Plus, you could bite off something small that wouldn't necessarily break you if things didn't go perfectly.

It has no use or value until you tap into it either selling the house (now why would you sell a perfectly good cash flowing house only to buy another) or by refinancing the house to get some of that equity out.

I tell myself this all the time -- if it's a mediocre deal in a perfect world, and a horrid deal if things go south, then I leave it to some other investor who has a higher risk tolerance.Ultimately, some folks do great with those -- maybe they do their own work, don't have a day job, manage themselves, and are rockstars at all of those things, allowing them to accumulate volume and properties.

The combo of risk adverse 2nd home owners along with the shock to the service industry could be the perfect storm.