The real issue is that the son probably doesn't have a license in the municipality where the property is and it sometimes can be difficult and time consuming to get licensed in the particular City.

Lastly, it’s MUCH easier to go out and buy one 20 unit property rather than 20 SFHs.SFHs are maintenance intensive, time consuming, and heavily dependent on the market.

Unless there is a black swan event, I don't think we will have a serious correction....yet.Do you think consumer confidence is a leading or lagging indicator? 

People like to get out, socialize, and consume; so, there will always be a market for it.

Not for how much value and suck out of consumers pockets and shove into whichever RE Investor was lucky enough to ‘hire’ me.Thanks for your help BP,Tom

Once you use the funds, if the rate environment is favorable, you can always refi into a fixed mortgage and consume your HELOC.

Nothing expensive to fix as I did it myself but time consuming.

You can spin the increasing debt as "consumer confidence," alongside manipulated statistics such as "lowest unemployment rate" (look around you, do you really think we don't have an employment problem when all the headlines are about the fight against outsourced labor and technology taking human jobs?)

Think of it this way, over a 25 year period you will consume one roof, one HVAC system, three water heaters, kitchen and bath fixtures, two sets of flooring and some other unexpected items.

I'm assuming it's not very large, and the utilities consumed by the basement are negligible compared to the rest of the house.If you're looking to rent the SFH as well, I would say offer a rebate for utilities to the SFH tenant (maybe $100/mo or a percentage of the usage).