I thought about the turn key but like you said I will be paying more for it and the equity wont be as good, however it will be complete and fully managed. 

So what you are asking them to do is perform a service and tie up their own resources for no compensation, however small that compensation might be.The investor suffers the consequences, too. 

Sure it suffered due to COVID, but you want to buy when there is distress.

The problem, of course, is that many lenders won"t HELOC anything other than my primary.   

I believe this would allow me to sell these two properties in a short time window without suffering tax penalties to then move into my third property while using the capital gained to move into an out-of-state market.  

I would suggest finding an average size SFH or condo that wont become a party house and set you up for failure.

That billion dollar real estate developer probally wont waste time with you and the deals he is working on are completely different.Nobody will be there to spoon feed you. 

I would like more insight into this because before I buy a rental property I want to knowif its a good area where people are looking to rent from and that I wont struggle to get tenants.Thanks!

Going to disagree with much of the sentiment here except for @Kate Barry and @Bruce Lynn through Point #3.You definitely want a team up front, especially if you're investing out of state.Order definitely matters, though, to Kate's point, but with that said the only one that wont take your call until you have property under contract, is the contractor.

You wont get hit with capital gains tax because it looks like your just improving your living situation.