It will ofset the income on your taxes.

As you said, we are pretty young in american market (but not in France where the income from rental cannot compete with what we can find in the us)What I mean by cap rate is annual NOI / money invested.

If you HAVE to put a rule of thumb on it I would say 50% of gross income goes to operating expenses, but again this fluctuates highly depending on the specific property. 

We really like it here, and I am interested in renovating and selling homes as an active income strategy. 

However, they will calculate a new DTI (debit to income ratio) based on the new monthly payments from your cash out refi or HELOC loan.Some quick pros and cons about Cash out Refi vsHELOCCash out Pros-tax free money-low interest rate-no monthly payments Cash out Cons-closing costs (couple thousand)HELOC Pros-tax free -its a line of credit, hence you can use pay back then use again-usually NO closing costsHeloc Cons-higher interest rate-have to make monthly payments on money borrowedHope this helps,CB

I'm looking to learn real estate to help people who need my services, create a passive income and live a life with more freedom.

https://www.airdna.co/region/us/north-carolinaThis site has a lot of info too:  http://www.rented.com/ultimateguide/This one has a calculator to estimate income - I was surprised at low occupancy (28% for Blowing Rock/Boone vs. about 70% in Florida)...  

Banks may in fact want more liquidity - since there is no income derived from owning land during the year. 

I am trying to discover the real way to earn my family some additional income in real estate, either through flipping, or developing rental properties. 

My first deal is a multi unit buy with a residential investor that will generate passive income for my client right away.