If you're investing remotely, especially for buy/hold, I highly recommend for the investor to spend some time in the cities that they are interested in

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

He has done a great job for us over the years and from time to time will swap out insurance providers as needed for better rates, better coverage, etc.  

If that does not organically happen fast enough, I would give a couple of residents at a time the option to (1) stay in their current unit at renovated rent levels and perform renovations that can be done in an occupied unit (2) move into a renovated unit at renovated rent levels or (3) move out.

You'd access the HELOC funds and then lend them to an investor at an agreed-upon rate for an agreed-upon period of time.

I would also recommend doing a balloon payment sometime from 2-5 years of executing the deal so you don't have the service the loan for a long time.

Still working on timing my transition from stocks to real estate.

He does this for mine for a low flat monthly fee and he really helps fill up the weekdays/off seasons and optimize booking revenue during the peak times.

In the past I have always functioned in the class D space which meant its challenging at times to get very good tenants.

All of us who have done this long enough have had our 'plans' go awry on different investments from time to time.