The new construction apartments going up are all but exclusively class A luxury apartments, I know the builders and investment group.Rents are similar to twin cities rates although property acquisition is significantly less than twin cities rates making for considerably better return rate potentials. 

I almost exclusively invest in Johnson County and my average rent is around $1500. 

Under one important assumption, however: that the HELOC is going to be used exclusively for business purposes, such as capital improvements to this rental or a purchase of another one. 

Their leads are exclusive to me and the CRM handles all the heavy lifting.

A very sound move providing you meet the residency requirements for the primary residence exclusion of sec. 121.  

Do you ever do any investing in the Grand Rapids area or exclusively on the east side of the state?

You can see the truth of this in that there are a non trivial number of companies who's revenue comes almost exclusively from out of state folks. 

Unless a broker has either an exclusive option to buy the note(s) or an exclusive right to market the note(s) I don’t know how this could be a profitable use of time. 

Showing up in person at your different suppliers and going through their clearance and scratch and dent stuff takes time but will save you tons.For counters I almost exclusively use remnants and negotiate to get them for pennies on the dollar.

I'd keep it as rental, but only do a 12 month lease at a time because you want to re-calculate in 2 years to see if doing the IRS section 121 exclusion is worth it or not, you really don't have much of a gain, but I'd still want to do the math especially since the rate adjusts at that point too and if you do decide to sell in 2 years you will want it to be vacant when you list it.