If you're trying to entice a seller to sell "on terms" (seller financing to you), then you might let them know how a licensed loan servicer could make their life easy by collecting payments on their behalf, transferring proceeds directly to their checking account, issuing monthly statements and sending annual tax filings.

I'm a new investor and I'm currently in a course where i paid 5k for a lifetime membership with conference calls once a week with the pros, I'm trying to figure out the best way to proceed in my area.

I would be extremely cautious when you proceed. 

The requirement to defer all tax is to purchase at least as much as your net sale and use all of the net proceeds in the purchase or purchases. 

So in one sense the intent that you can demonstrate easily is that you intended to hold it.There is one large court case in the last few years where a developer had his 1031 overturned on a property he sold after something like 12 years. 

Dealing with the city government sucks, the crime sucks, the courts suck - but the cashflow can be tremendous.

I filed for eviction in March 2020, but the courts are so backed up.

it's a bit of a mess but my father-in-law bought this home and let us move in, when we got married he put it in a trust for us and has since taken it out so we can sell it and use the proceed for a new home in CO.

In that case you would probably want to use all your cash flow proceeds to pay off the HELOC asap.

@Ari Dehbone here are the areas in SoCal that allow for Non-Owner Occupied short-term rentals (NOO STRs for short):Palm Springs: 36 total stays/yrFullerton (near Disney Land)Laguna Beach (non-residential zones)Huntington Beach (Sunset Beach area as long as you apply before 3/1/22)Santa Barbara: Inland (NOO in commercial zones and STR-Coastal Zone Historic Overlay Zone), Coastal (NOO unregulated, but court ruling allows for it)Joshua TreeMalibuBig Bear Lake (92315 zip code)Newport Beach (R-1.5, R-2 or RM Zones)You'll have to do your research on specific properties for cap rates and cash flow, but these are the areas I would look in.