it seems as if option #1 allows you to quickly scale with less money (basically furniture and a security deposit) but has the downside of lower margins since you're not building equity.I've also thought of other ideas such as buying a few properties under a llc with several other investors, where the total cash per person would be the same as if you bought 1 property by yourself but it's diversified across different markets and reduced risk.

If you cannot convert it into really useable space, what if you split it in half and put coin op washer/dryers on one side for your tenants use, and on the other side, put storage areas that tenants can rent for an additional fee.

For all you Dave Ramsey acolytes out there I invest in real estate now because without additional income my ability to pay off my student loans at my current salary (which is a good salary) plus living expenses etc... would mean not be able to pay back those loans and be debt free for at least ten and maybe 15 or 20 years down the road.

I've been very pleased with this transition as the returns I'm getting are much better than my 401K was performing.With the 8 properties that I've purchased, the monthly rent coming in ($5K/month) is enough to purchase another house every 12 months and this will continue to reduce as the # of homes get purchased.Let me know if you have any questions

My question is would it be possible to get another HELOC, or home equity loan, etc. for an additional 30%-40% possibly?

Can you post any additional details about your deal? 

I'd say that after the job is completed, I might need to revisit the project to make additional minor repairs to the garage, and the money is intended also for electricity needed for the minor repairs, if they ever come up. 

(Sorry for the additional questions, but I know I would have these questions in my sleep.)

Basically we were dealing with lady x at this big mortgage bank working out the details, who was gonna  pay for closing costs and if i could put repair money into the deal and then all the sudden lady x cant be contacted  for a month and i thought the deal was done and i was back to square one then my realtor got word they had reduced the price again out of nowhere.

I'd need to charge $50-100 each time depending on location and can put that into a buyer's agreement as an additional charge to you at a future closing.