It won't teach you anything about real estate investing and certainly nothing about flipping homes.You'll also need to spend money to obtain your license with the state, and you'll have to pay your annual dues to the local board of Realtors for access to the MLS.

For something like this I had a much better experience with Upstate Mortgage.For commercial properties a local lender like Synovus (formerly NBSC) Bank has been great for my needs.

Cheap (5% rate or less) long-term, fixed rate residential leverage is less risky than others like commercial, private, hard money or seller-provided.Couple a low risk loan type with adequate reserves, equity and cash-flow? 

No serious investor would tell you to leave it out (special cases like triple-net commercial properties aside). 

Investment Info:Large multi-family (5+ units) commercial investment investment.

. - Small price to pay to have access to the equity.But a HELOC seems like a no-brainer, just as a safety net.

@Brad TarryYou can roll all or part of that old 401(k) to an IRA of your choosing, including a self-directed IRA that provides broader investment choices.IRA plans do not offer a participant loan feature as 401(k) plans do, however.If you are self-employed, you could potentially establish your own Solo 401(k) and then have access to the loan feature.If you will be joining another W-2 employer you could also potentially roll some of your current 401(k) into that plan such that you would have some capital from which to borrow.If you have an outstanding loan on your prior employer 401(k) that may need to be paid off promptly if you have terminated service. 

So I recently started selling commercial real estate and I want to buy my first investment/rental property (residential).

It seems like in commercial real estate there are more dual agents than in SF.   

@Charlie MacPherson i have access to view tax address.