Otherwise you have to sell to someone that wants to buy a large portfolio at one time...... and that's only an investor that wants a smoking deal, so you eat that all at one time and walk away....

Hard money is very expensive and will eat up your profits fast.

Cashflow is variable between $1-3K/mo depending on repairs (avg over last 4 years is $1600/mo) and there will  likely be plumbing and roof issues that may eat into my cash flow soon. 

We eat very inexpensive foods i.e. rice  and homemade chili every day.

When the units are sub $1000 per month capex eats a bigger percentage.

Mathematically though, it makes more sense to put as much as I can toward the HELOC to reduce my interest as quickly as possible and then eat the tax bill when it comes. 

@Jay HinrichsYou are right on (as always) about the trip eating away your cash flow....

As you get closer to moving out and property values are going up you could hold on to and eat the negative cashflow.

They can eat up a lot of appreciation if selling after only a few years.

Hard Money Lenders can eat up all your profits and eat into your reserves if things don’t go planned.