I went searching for this topic in the forums but have not had much luck...When purchasing the replacement property via a 1031, is it possible to use some of the excess funds within the 1031 to perform repairs on the new property?

The HELOC is secured against your property. 

If you have fair credit, verifiable rental history and consistent income you can easily secure FHA financing in Houston and the inner city is the ideal place to house hack because of it's proximity to all the cool and trendy places downtown along with the major universities and Med Center.

She finally found an appropriate forever home where our offer was accepted and our old home because our first rental (and to this day is our worst performing property but that is another story). 

I want to invest in the Chicago market, but it seems so expensive to find a good duplex, triplex, 4plex.Does anyone have any suggestions how to go about securing a good solid first deal?

They will definitely ask for a financial statement form where you list assets, liabilities, debts (secure, non secure), W2, Job status, ... etc.If you don't have anything palpable, they might just ask some front desk person or salesperson call you back.

So say you still have a 4% conversion, you get more per dollar spent on conversions than you would at a high bid.Then as time goes on find out which keywords are performing the best based on data and then you can bid up on those.

Failing to meet deadlines is a failure to perform on the contract.

Secure bank financing on 1 of the houses for $50,000 which would clear his debt.

If you are unable to secure a better price you may want to look at higher deductibles to see if the savings is worthwhile.