Just do what keeps you focused on income productive things and hire others to help you.  

It's an option that can be used to get into the business, but if you should do it can only be determined by you and your husband, possibly with the help of a CPA or similar professional. 20-45k is generally enough to get started, depending on what you're getting into and where you are.If you are going to be risking your primary residence with a HELOC, my suggestion is that you make sure you could handle the possibility of that money going into a failing investment and getting lost.

if he takes care of all that it may be worth it, figure out what your costs would be to hire outside services and see if it saves you money, is the place that big that you need an onsite manager or will it cost you less to hire a PM company ?

The only time I have ever hired an inspector was for my advantage for a price reduction on a offer that was accepted. 1000 is the most I will do for earnest money.

There are professional tenants out there who know how to play the system and take advantage of landlords etc...Make sure to work with people you trust, and think very carefully before buying super low end.  

Professional dress.

If you are planning on hiring a property manager (or if you think you will ever have one for the property, even if you don't have one now), they usually will charge around 1 months of rent for just placing a tenant.Even though they are a condo and townhome, that is a tiny amount of cash flow each month.

I figure wholesaling would be a great starting point and would like to learn as much as I can from BiggerPockets and various other professionals from this site.

Why not just hire a realtor and sell it on the MLS for that amount?  

Give the seller/agent a timeline say 2-3 weeks, then you can use the 18k (I'd even go 25k in escrow, 18k relocation, 7k for attorney) to hire an attorney of your choice chargeable to the seller.