Repairs and maintenance are performed following quarterly inspections, painting is done with tenants in place on a ongoing bases and unless I plan a major reno my units are rent ready. 

But I would not buy it as-is for 230k - you are paying retail or higher for a house that needs work.Also, it has a slab foundation - if the house still has cast iron plumbing, you will be in for some major headaches down the line, or may even need to repipe now before putting in new flooring. 

That tenant paid on time for the majority of his tenancy and resided in the property for 2 years and the property needed minimal work before being re-tenanted in October.

It actually got very difficult to find willing employees to work in a massive city that would not allow the grand majority of them to live within its City limits.

Have turned property over 4 times since first acquisition and made some major system repairs (roof, AC, plumbing).

If you are talking about capex like a new roof, new flooring, or other major improvements then I would use the HELOC.You want to use the cash for more investments that will bring a return.

Account Closed I'm new to this game and have basically zero experience, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night so....I've been doing a bunch of research on the long term population and economic trends of all the major metro areas and I have to say that Raleigh's profile is stellar.

When I dig deeper, I noticed that almost majority of these properties had one thing in common.

There is good competition from well located retail space but I’m seeing a majority of providers prefer class A office buildings. 

Knowing your timeframe for acquiring the property will help you stay on track with the rest of the process.While this is not an exhaustive checklist, if you have these six areas planned out in advance, you will be in a great position to get through your first investment property purchase without any major surprises.