I would say go after your degree as fast and hard as you can at a local institution, with as little debt as possible, and during or after, work as a RE agent or for a construction or management company and house-hack aggressively.

Usually on HELOC's for the most favorable terms you willl not want to go over 75%  L/V some institutions lend up to 100%...

Our company, Atlas Real Estate Group, just received 50 single family rentals to lease from a large institutional investment company.  

I have five years of institutional experience so would want to specifically market myself to that niche market. 

If you hold a second behind an institutional lender, you do not have to payoff the first, you may not need to with any other senior lien, generally state laws allow subordinate lien holders to foreclose, then you may assume a loan, or make payments until a sale or simple hold the property for sale, depends on the state and lien holder.Rules have changed, what most folks know about seller financing doesn't apply any longer, see your attorney.

I don't know if it's the same for all of them, or if it varies by institution. 

What is a good financial institute to work with for this kind of transaction?

The value play on this deal is to have the tenants pay a portion of the utilities by instituting RUBS.Is 400 typical for a one bed in that market?

It has major educational and health care institutions, which are also not going anywhere.  

Does anyone know of a financial institution that will do construction financing in this situation?