@Vincent Cavalieri Happy to connect.

The lesson here is never buy into a property that you cannot take your family to and continue to research the area if you are banking on the neighborhood to be improved.

He's an agent with RE/MAX, one of the largest franchises with a great training program and a lot of tools for their agents to use and build a successful business.

@Matt Smith  I would ensure egress even if it is your brother using it.  

Warning:If you depreciate a property down near zero and then have to sell your property at a loss during a situation of distress...You could end up giving all the proceeds to the bank AND owe the IRS a big chunk of money for recapture.Long-term tax planning with real estate needs to be coupled with risk management and making sure you don't lose any properties.

My father and I attended the workshop, and the entire 2 hours was spent providing only “teasers” and using high pressure tactics to upsell to their (quite primitive at the time) mentoring program.  

Your rate will be higher than current, but give you your cash out to use for future opportunities. 

Use it to gain some experience as a landlord and in two years leverage the equity to purchase a duplex.

Quote from @Michael Goddard: It is always great to hear someone coming from a place of giving to gain knowledge.

However, after talking to some loan professionals, it seems that there are always origination fees, appraisal fees etc.My question is, what fees should I expect to pay when opening up my first HELOC.