It is like a pre-approved loan sitting there for use anytime you need it.  

From the sounds of it, STR is going to be our best bet and is going to be what ensures our success.

Your best bet will likely be partnering on deals, where others bring the funding and you bring a different value proposition.

Given your time horizon, your lender have a floating rate product [the HELOC] tied to a fixed rate loan, which is a bad idea, never mind the fact that they could call the HELOC at anytime. 

So you think it's financially sound to pay:1 - $20k DP2 - All of the cost of the remod3 - All of the taxes and insurance for a year4 - ...and, $15,600 in payments......over the course a year, with NO INCOME at all, on the hope that the remod will allow you to double your rent...which if all works out, and you run all of the numbers, I bet you still don't break even until the year 2031?...

Demand is not going away anytime soon.

Hoping like many to become a real estate investor over time, but for the moment I had a question which I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out:What would be the best / most appropriate insurance configuration in this situation:- My wife is the title holder for a single family home- She does not live at the home - Her parents live at the home, rent free- Her brother pays the mortgage on the home and he plans to rent out two rooms in the house to long term tenants (strangers)- Her parents will continue to live in the rest of the home, rent free (this is fine, just putting it here in case it affects the insurance)- My wife and I are able to visit the home at any time and do so regularly to see her parentsAll I want to make sure is that we (my wife) are covered from all angles on insurance.

Best bet is to locate commercial brokers around the country for pocket listings...There is also a YouTube channel I believe it's called Commercial Property Advisors or something like that, the guy has some excellent videos on commercial properties.

@Joaquin Garuz I'm up north in Boca and I've been watching the trends between West palm and homestead since 2015, the numbers just don't make any sense, everybody is blindly betting on appreciation and I'm waiting to see how it all plays out during a downturn. 

I bet you'll still be seeing word art in model manufactured housing for the next 5 years, minimum!