Not only that, but my surveyor said it appeared that the house was encroaching on the neighboring property by a couple inches! 

Now I want to get a blanket loan to put everything under one loan... 1 payment to 1 bank.. and take out Equity to make a couple large moves... now -does anyone have experience with a blanket loan and would they recommend this? 

Just a couple of other options

I saw a sign advertising a couple of rentals and when I called to ask for information and if the property had pictures online they person responded that it was listed on realtor.com and that if I sent a pic of my license they would send me the address.???

On a side note just to add some perspective - there's a decent chance you're going to run into 10k in unexpected costs within the first couple years of ownership, and that's part of the business. 

A couple questions come to mind:1. 

@Janice DelantesThere are a couple angles here.The monthly rent is currently $550 - but what is that the market rent?

I would say that if you are just starting out AI would use conventional mortgages to get the first couple of properties. 

You can have the option when the real estate economy is in a different place....when you can buy turnkeys in booming markets so you end up getting a good bit of appreciation on them over a couple-few years (like Atlanta in 2011-2012...all my turnkeys there have doubled or tripled in value since). 

I plan on using the HELOC/Refinance money to put down payments (or cash purchase) on a couple of more properties, so I was leaning more towards the Refinance because of the rate increase risk, but I definitely see the positives with the HELOC!!