First do no harm, or as little harm as possible.

Take your pick, from pork bellies too mortgages, so to speak of the risk factor there is like saying it's headline news that starring into the sun can harm your eyes. 

Then, after high school, take some cheap courses online or at your community college that will enhance the area in which you're interested. 

Hey Cody,No harm to your dti using the HELOC - agree with the others in this post.

Population and employment growth has remained strong and continues to enhance our supply/demand especially outside of the A class segment.I'm underwriting everything with flat line rent growth and a large increase in vacancy.

But, going to college also means you can learn a lot more about subjects that will enhance your knowledge and be useful later in life.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

In hindsight we could've gotten the properties without them because the potential for tenants causing harm is greater than the benefit in having them.

I also let them know that an eviction will harm their chances for future rentals.

DO NOT take short cuts that could harm them intentionally or unintentionally.