@Robert Jensen - We have clients who have bought in East Oakland and parlayed their equity via 1031 into another property (essentially trading up), and using the remaining funds to purchase a 2nd property. 

This might be important if you're looking to manage your DTI or debt to income so you can keep your purchasing power open for any deals coming to your desk in the future.You're only limited to 50k or 50% whichever is lower with your 401k anyway.The HELOC on the other hand will cause your monthly payment whether interest only or principal & interest to go up which will increase your DTI and leave less room for future qualification depending on the deals you purchase with these funds.From a credit perspective, having the HELOC might be better because now you have an additional trade line reporting good payment ratings to the credit bureaus assuming you pay your bills on time.Ultimately, its good to use a fine balance of all sources based on your risk preferences, speed of execution or purchase, financial position today, and your deals you have access to to get this capital to work on your behalf.Hope that helps.

A trade...a skill that was very beneficial in your journey which was the construction factor.

For example if you look at the trade history for many properties recently sold you can see the asking price and the sold price.

You'll be looking for a commercial trade area report.

I did do a good bit of googling & youtube learning - both trades and PM. 

And many are.As always: if I could predict how long this opportunity would last, I'd be on Wall Street day-trading, not doing mortgages.

Good trades make the work happen and happen efficiently both from a cost and quality perspectiveA good QI could have saved you the $8K in capital gains tax and depreciation recapture with a 1031 exchange since you ended up renting it instead of flipping it.A good realtor knows the introductions to make to the above folks and can be invaluable in the buying and selling and due diligence processes.Take heart - The rookie tax can be expensive. 

Don't want to put the cart before the horse... and speaking from experience it can be somewhat challenging to qualify with limited work experience or in trades if there's not a consistent paycheck :)Any successful business will take some time to get up and running, wholesaling included. 

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/49421-bill-eliminating-va-loan-cap-signed-into-lawThe Department of Veterans Affairs can now back loans that exceed the conforming loan limit, as a bill eliminating this cap was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Tuesday night.The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act allows homebuyers to borrow above the 2019 limit of $484,350 for most counties without any down payment.[...]The move comes after a decades-long fight for veterans to receive health care benefits for diseases related to Agent Orange exposure, according to military.com, which said the bill will “fast-track disability compensation” for as many as 90,000 affected former service members.In an earlier draft of the bill, the cost of these benefits were to be financed by raising VA loan fees 0.35% to 0.5% for non-disabled veterans, according to military.com.But trade groups like the National Association of Realtors lobbied against such an increase, and lawmakers opted to raise the loan cap as a way to raise funds to support benefits instead.Huge for the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland, DC, LA, San Diego, and other high cost areas of the country.