Real estate is cheaper in 85367, Yuma Foothills, than in Yuma proper 85364.

Also, the IRS auditor loves to see organized and properly tallied lists.

I feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of what a HELOC can do if leveraged properly.

Any advice on how to set this up properly would be greatly appreciated!

You want each investment to provide a blessing to you and your family not become a burden, which can easily happen without a proper buffer.

Is there anyone who can point me in the right direction of the proper steps to take?

And thats of course disregarding the time spent in class and studying for the exam and putting the pressure on yourself to properly know the ins and outs of the contract since you will be representing yourself. 

be sure you have proper insuranceEnjoy being a landlord! 

So, if the sheetrock is up, and you plan to pull permits now there's a good chance you will have to tear it all off so the inspector can properly inspect the framing and insulation. 

@Nick TalaricoAs suggested - it helps to have a separate bank account for just your real estate related activities.This way you know 100% of the activities within the account are related to the real estate related activities.You can export the information into excel and properly categorize the information.One you scale up, you may want to consider having an accounting software such as quickbooks, Stessa, Quicken, etc.