It would be helpful if this agent is open to educating us on LA real estate.

Take the cash and forget the HELOC or keep it as a rental for the future and leverage myself further?

Knowing your rehab budget is key, make sure you have a property manager you can trust and leverage his or her contacts.

It is not required, but you will have to be able to segregate for taxes.Many states also require that a separate bank account be used for the security deposits.Read your tenant-landlord law, get educated, you need to confidently know your processes.

I'll have to provide a little real estate education (based on what I've begun to learn on BP) to really make a solid case.

Assuming you use financial wisdom and insure your income more than covers your leverage not using it is financially stunted.

Thank you for your time,MoosaHi Moosa,I'm in the same boat in determining that now as we've been priced out here in South Florida (currently have 3 properties - a house hack duplex, a long term and a short term vacation rental) I'm also starting my education on that with David Greene's "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" which is referenced on BP quite frequently, so that's probably a great first step. 

This wouldn't work in Allentown, but anything more than a few miles north of Rt. 22 would qualify. https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/all-prog...I would be careful not to over-leverage yourself at this stage in the game.

Once you paid the seller, you lost your leverage over/with them to a great extent.

I’m just trying to understand how people (that I hear about through bigger pockets) do these rental investments and use “leverage”.