When you break up the home into sections and you know the costs in your head (or on paper) ahead of time, it is easy to add it up as you walk through.

I plan on doing a mini rehab on both floors and outside to help push it to the top rental prices.

That assumption is based purely off of Zillow's estimate so who really knows, but in any case,- Would it be wise to go ahead and obtain a HELOC on the property even if I don't plan on using it for awhile?

Sure there are people who ‘made it’ that may say “I’d like to give back, I’d like to mentor a young guy or gal”… but I promise you they’re going to look for the same traits in their mentee that they had- which, in part, was the willingness to work ungodly hours in order to learn and get ahead in life.

I agree with Jess Haas above that you need be ahead of landlord issues like where Airbnb is going to 30-day mins, etc., as well as ahead of the development trends by going to city planning meetings.

Thanks for all your wisdom and experience ahead of time as I will be learning a lot.

Getting low on cash will push you to replenish it faster than using a credit line. 

If there is an appreciable amount of time left on the lease that prorate should have been credited to you.Review your closing documents--it's possible you may have gotten the credit under a heading you wouldn't have expected.

Just to give you an accurate expectation for other deals I just sold one of my investors a deal that if executed properly is able to cash flow at 32% CoC very confidently and can be pushed as high as 40% assuming everything goes really well this was in Forest Park.

Taking taxes into account when purchasing a building is also so important to find tax savings or like you're saying - plan ahead to avoid any surprise tax expenses.