The mountains are nowhere near as impressive as the Sierras, but the area has several ski resorts, enjoys great weather, and is an easy getaway for the L.A. and San Diego crowd. 

Please note that I used HML with 4% origination and 12% APR and only one general contractor.

I belong to a ski club with access to a chalet, but now as I pursue REI more seriously, the prospect of owning up there is pretty appealing.

It's a great rental- busy in the summer (hiking, mountain biking, zip lining) and in the winter (skiing, snow tubing).

So hypothetically if you had a 100k stock portfolio, and you assume a worst case scenario where the market suddenly drops 50%, now you have a 50k portfolio and can access $17,500 within seconds at a stupidly low 2% APR with no set repayment schedule. 

I would hire a NACHi-certified home inspector to compile a pre-sale home inspection report and, among other things, highlight recent property updates.

That's a pre-sale.

I am pretty sure that period of time could be predetermined in the form of of a pre-payment penalty or ballon payment laid out in the financing terms to ensure I was covered to pay of the underlying loan.

@Jerryll Noorden you misunderstood, short version is they feed her seller leads and all she does is reply, ask script questions, basically runs it through a pre-canned system provided to her to sort legitimate motivated sellers with profit potential vs bs tire kickers.

Your suggestions are also places I have been thinking of and looking into like Maggie valley and Mars Hill as it helps that there are ski resorts there.