My thought is that as long as we can cover the HELOC payment from the rent that we would be collecting we’d be fine.Thoughts?

Rent covers the mortgage (plus a little) so it's working out okay for us so far. 

That's why written screening criteria is recommended.

Our goal is to get to the point where our passive income will cover what i currently make(somwhere around 12 units) and i can stay at home to raise my boy.

I have an extra room in my primary residence and I decided the best way to start and learn would be to rent that out.I guess I am just looking for general advice as to what I should do in this situation and what I should be looking out for especially when it comes to screening. 

After looking at some info on cash out refinancing, I am now considering this as it would be a strong rental in a great area.My situation:This would be my 3rd  buy and hold...1 rental, 1 rv storage yard and this property.I have used a heloc for the 20% on each property but now if I hold this one traditionally my cash would not be enough to do another deal.I have flipped 1 house earlier this year with the intention of doing a few more to draw the heloc down to nothing by end of next year.If I do a cash out on this one I may not be able to pull all of my initial 20%/rehab out, but would be covering the notes/expenses and cash flowing some each month with a long term asset.

We don't anticipate having any emergencies with our rental properties that aren't covered by insurance and would cost more than $2500, but if we did, we'd chip in from our personal funds and cover it.

You may find many frogs but the Prince applicant will cause you fewer headaches.Good luck with the screening:)

Someone else might have enough WFC that they collect more than enough in just dividends to cover their expenses, and they would laugh at your headache-laden RE investments, which they could never scale big enough fast enough to cover their expenses, whereas the click of a button get's them plenty of dividend income to live off very comfortably while compounding the rest. 

to be some upside that I am missing in my valuations:Purchase price:  495,000Units:                      16Rental Income:      8,400/moDown:                    20%Down:                    100,000Closing:                      6,400Repairs:                    16,000 (assume 1,000 per unit)TOTAL INVEST:     122,400Costs:  Debt:                  2,800.00 (6%)   Taxes:                   690.00  Insurance:            200.00  Sewer:                   800.00  Heat:                  1,200.00  Yard:                       40.00  Garbage:              300.00  Cap Exp(3%)        252.00 (Lower than I normally go)  Repairs (5%)        420.00 (300.00 per yr/unit)  Mngmnt (10%)    840.00  Vacancy(7%)        588.00  Screening              40.00 (tenant screening)TOTAL COST:     7,600.00 (rounded)Monthly CF:          800.00 (yikes...…...50.00 per unit!!)