Everyone in real estate will be incentivized to upcharge your friend along the process hurting profitiability. 

I am in the process of vetting property managers and they are int he running.

I would love to hear from other more experienced in the field about alternative ways to financing that I should consider besides the HELOC, maybe also hear from investors on how the process of bringing investors onboard works.

I realize I am not cut out for the entire REI process of consistently finding multiple properties for particular exit strategies. 

Start the eviction process.

But I generally don't find that clients need to spend that much money on the process when some simple coaching can make them comfortable in their search.

@Bob Stevens I meant, you're pulling comps as part of your process to analyze a deal, right?

Is there someone willing to guide me through this process?

Quote from @Michael Overall: Good day, If an investor has 10 rentals and wanted to over time sell them and put the money tax free from a 1031 toward a large purchase is there a process to do that? 

Then you put another portion of your mortgage on the HELOC and repeat the process.