We have about 100k in equity in the property at the moment.

Originally I was thinking to sell this place and move into a SFH or even a Multi Family and stay in it a year then rent it, buy another stay in it a year and rent it and keep moving along that way, but through reading BP forums and talking to some other REI it seems like possibly taking a HELOC and staying in this house a bit longer might be a good option because I will have a fair amount of equity.

So they go and list it on MLS for 260 it never sells of course because its no deal.it swings back to me and sure enough.. once we dug into it a little more these guys did not realize she owed 195kk against it and it was in foreclosure.. about to be lost.. so they had it tied up  had fouled up her title by recording that document and they were going to lose out. so long story short I told them I would give them 6k and the seller 5k. and stroke a  check on the spot for 211k.. and it was done.they were lucky to get that. but they would have had no compunction ripping 100 to 150k of equity from this older lady in distress.I leveled the house built a new construction that sold for just under 750k and we made right at 200k net profit on the deal.. but I would have passed if I thought these guys were ripping this ladies equity I don't care how much I would have made I can make that on another deal and not take advantage..now granted when folks CLOSE and then resell well all bets are off and its harder to go back and see what someone paid for things.. 

Also in addition to vetting a deal sponsor, take an alternative route and ask that are currently equity partners in someone else's deals as to what their experiences have been so far.

I would like to say that you can get an equity partner to help but your deadline is too close for that to go through. 

What assessed value did they use and is there equity above the 1st, Did it get discharged in the BK?   

And you don’t want to pay them off because that decreases your return of equity.

The terms of a commercial loan won't be as favorable as traditional financing.

I primarily/ultimately want to get into multi-family complexes and am unsure as to whether I should aim for some (section 8) SFH in Baltimore City to build up my capital/equity.

We mail Yellow Letters to high equity and long ownership so it is obvious it's an older generation, but in Houston we don't see the same pattern or get that many people to say those things like in SA.