Have great credit and have the money to put 20% down but what's the challenge in that.  

I would begin talking to a lot of your local banks and credit unions to see what they will allow.

When you refinanced the following year, did you run into any issues with having debt from your HELOC on your credit report?

My question is: if we redeem our personal credit card points for Lowe’s / home dept gift cards to go towards supplies/materials/cabinets etc, can we deduct that as an expense even though we used a gift card vs a credit card or cash?

That means you need to know what kind of financing you can get and what the terms will be. many investors hear about homeowner terms and thin they can get that because they have good credit. 

The original owner loses his house and his credit is ruined, you lose your down payment and owe the lease to buy guy all his money.

My background into RE started when I began working as a commercial credit underwriter for a bank.

We have good, not great credit, and a decent amount of savings that we're hoping to continue to increase.

Depending on your credit, I think you can get below 5.5% on a mortgage.

Otherwise, some book recommendations (these include mostly books on business/lifestyle or buy/hold investing):- "E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber- "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter (this provides a more foundational perspective on money)- "Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert Kiyosaki (further builds on the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" foundation)- "Set for Life" by Scott Trench- "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene- "The Book on Managing Rental Properties' by Brandon Turner and Heather Turner- "The Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod-"HOLD" by Gary Keller (geared toward SFR)-"The ABCs of Real Estate Investing" by Ken McElroy (geared toward commercial investing)"Multi-Family Millions" by David Lyndahl (This is on my list of "To-Reads".