As part of the purchase, I ended up using their sister company REI.I would absolutely not recommend REI.I am still going through the motions with them, but the experience has been terrible.

Painting is one of those things that isn't terribly technically challenging.

It's in terrible, terrible shape.

There is no "best option overall," because it depends on your goals.HELOCs are either ARMs, or have terrible interest rates.

I am in the final stages of loan approval with /Quicken ( terrible company). 

Terrible idea with tenants due to liability concerns.

LA traffic is LA traffic(terrible) no matter what direction you are coming from to go to the meat of La(DTLA,Hollywood, WEHO, BH, Culver City,etc.).

Got a scathing review how terrible it was and how there was noise all night long and they couldn't sleep and that this was a dangerous neighborhood (I did describe that this is not a neighborhood for walking around in and they didn't have a car and walked around in the middle of the night, coming from their bartending jobs), that I was late and wouldn't let them check in until 6pm, instead of 3pm, that I loudly woke them up at 10am, when check out was at 11 and so on and that they wouldn't recommend anyone to stay here.

Nicolet Bank: The person I talked to didn't understand the strategy at all and kept talking about me switching my accounts to them and that a Heloc would be a terrible idea3.

Price changes and sales down East have been largely muted in comparison and not  as terribly out of alignment with economics.