There are some people "real estate consultants" who will give you detailed reports: if they think this is better for a flip, rental, what rents you could get, recommended repairs (not as detailed as an inspection report). 

I read about people who purchase a property, obtained some equity, and used the HELOC on that property to buy their next.

Becoming a Key Principal (KP) in other people’s commercial real estate deals is a great way to shelter your income, participate in several deal at the same time, minimize / spread out risk, capture equity w/ a preferred double-digit return at a discount cash-out-of-pocket investment. 

Right now my focus is simply to learn all I can and connect with people who are immersed in this world.

Greenville has a little better population growth and is about 90K people, roughly the size of Rocky Mount and Wilson combined.

I want to know of people’s previous experience with them before I proceed.

When I rented my townhouse this spring I had numerous people begging for it.

Everywhere on the news, people are talking about multifamily distressed owners.

Also what are people doing with these lump sums of money after wholesaling for profit?

Alan Ceshker is a closing attorney that does wraps.https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/ta37I might disagree with the concept, but I still believe in free will for people who want to choose their destiny.