I would focus on establishing a career base, building a strong credit score, and eliminating as many personal expenses as possible (I too had to sell my shiny red car and "put my money where my mouth is").   

But a chunk would need to into real estate.From a gambling perspective, the jackpot is big enough its actually a good bet to play.

The biggest gamble in this game is knowing the value of this prime real estate, understanding the cities objectives to convert the blighted area back to what it once was and should become again in the future.

Fundamentally, the SEC established (in 1934) three classifications of investors: Accredited Investors, Non-Accredited Investors and Sophisticated Investors.  

Re-establish your expectations.

We are still in early assessment and havent really compared places to places.. not quite sure whether cities like Lowell will be a gamble over some saturated markets like Medford / Somerville.... 

This let me go through all the problems in the home and estimate costs without entering.The rest of the process that established my maximum bid amount was pretty conventional.

I would absolutely recommend it to more established investors with higher liquidity positions. 

Trevor Scott I would strongly suggest you establishing a Corporate Entity such as a S Corp or a LLC.

However, I foresee two problems with this; The loan could be called once you change title and, if you're mom ever starts binge drinking or gambling, there is no stopping her from writing checks against that HELOC and pulling more money out up to the limit.