I have my emergency fund and a mortgage payment set aside.

You'll be surprised with how many potential deals you can find these ways, and the numbers will typically work out better compared to what you see on the MLS.  

And since you are smart and live well below your means, you can pay off the line of credit if an emergency arises.Lets say that you can in fact purchase 1 property every year for 5 years with 20k down.

Agree with @Steve Vaughan - If the debt is low-APR, your cash can be better deployed to investments with greater return than 4-5%.The general advice ladder is:Build emergency fundPay off high interest debt rapidlyDeploy cash into savings and long-term growth investments with good ROIContinue to service those low interest debts for years, with excess cash deployed elsewhere.

We do have an open HELOC for $135 just as an emergency fund or if some great small deal comes along we want to jump on.

That was going to be my next question regarding the emergency exit point for the basement in it but you pretty well covered that question thanks

I can't imagine this would be defined by the Revised Code of Washington but I've been surprised before! 

Nothing surprises me anymore.

I was surprised when I saw specifically that the neighbor's house was actually sold at about $95,000. 

The day after the cops were called, he called me (before I found out about this from the other tenant) and he said that he was very sick and had to go to the emergency room the night before.