I am a big believer in keeping your personal expenses low (Dave Ramsey principles) which has allowed me to save quiet a bit of cash every month...For my next investment I will continue to keep my personal expenses low and use my savings to buy my next rental.

Great info on this sight as well as very educated investors, who are always willing to answer any REI questions you may have.

The pros of a HELOC:Line of credit up to 90%(depending on what bank used) LTV10 year interest only 20 year payback periodIf you pay principle down you can draw on the line as much as you wantLow interest ratesTax benefitCan be refinanced no money out of pocketThe cons of a HELOCBanks may charge 1 time annual feecannot sell property for 2-3 years (depending on bank) otherwise its subject to feesPain to establish (mortgage brokers dont want to do this because they dont get paid much)Just as Joe mentioned, if you prepare all the documents in advanced, banks can give you their preapproval package within 2-3 business days.Please let me know if you need any advice on whom to consider, I have a HELOC myself and did HELOCs for clients oftenBest of luck!

I've bid on several of those before (sight unseen) because I understand that the seller is just trying to make sure they're only dealing with serious potential buyers and not wasting their time.

You won't be assuming the mtg, and if you did as part of the sale, it would be treated as cash received (no difference) as far as cap gains, I believe.  50k in recapture/cap gains seems high, but maybe.Just for example's sake, sale price $250k ,let's say his current basis is $75k, after depreciation.Any interest he receives is ordinary income.So, ANY principle he receives (lump sums, payments, etc) would be divided as:30% would be return of basis-non taxable (75k/250)70% would be gain, subject to recapture and cap gains (175k/250)@Steven Hamilton II  can correct my invalid assumptions.

The seller may also have other properties he would be willing to sell, most likely as in larger holdings there are many ways to get to the goal the seller is seeking.First thing to do is to set up the structure of the deal, sight unseen of the properties, determine what the goal is, what you need to do is to establish 50 properties that may be sold, not necessarily the 50 he picked out.

Student housing is something I hadn't considered but will definitely keep it in my sights as I continue to research, network, learn and grow.

At the time we had 11 properties but have bought all the others sight unseen since.

This is a late reply, but I stumbled across it looking for people in my area that have the same principles that I do when it comes to investing.

I found a credit union that did not require 6 months to season the property before lending a HELOC, nor did they really verify the fair market value other than checking the tax appraised value).So while I see victory in sight (loan should close in two weeks), I will certainly take this hard lesson with me: always remember equity, debt to income AND seasoning requirements when attempting to get a HELOC or cash out refi.Thanks again all!