And then you have an Operations LLC - a shell LLC that is the public facing entity, doing all the interactions with tenants, contractors, leasing, hiring, management, etc. with no assets and very little funds beyond whats required for proper capitalization and operations.That's the basic idea, but things get complicated from there due to the partnership, financing, commingling, etc - which is your current situation.

However if you do not have the funds to close on the deal yourself or have transactional funding available, then you have to do what you have to do and assign the contract to an end buyer. 

I’m just getting things started and want to get into ‘buy and hold’ properties to bring in some additional cash flow.My wife and I have a decent amount of funds set aside, but I was wondering if it makes sense to open a HELOC on our primary residence and utilize some of those funds as well for a down payment.

Although I am still in the education phase, I’d like to gain an idea of how to fund my first deal by asking those who’ve surpassed this first step.

Should i keep the home and start buying multi families or sell it to get the funds for future deals?

Later, when you find a deal worth pursuing, you can re-advance the funds from your secured LoC.

I would not recommend contributing funds to do repairs until you get the title in your name.

We don't anticipate having any emergencies with our rental properties that aren't covered by insurance and would cost more than $2500, but if we did, we'd chip in from our personal funds and cover it.

@Mike M.Sounds like a good day to buy some index funds.

Do lenders allow us to use their funds without charging us?