I was hoping to use some of these funds for REI, but have been hesitant to do anything besides lending as once I remove any of that money it becomes INCOME and trying to minimize that hit for now. 

Even if people have to come into work a few days there will be some who will be willing to pay the premium to live in the big cities so that their commute on those days will be minimal. 

Governors, mayors, even federal agency’s are intervening and creating unanticipated liabilities for owners and landlords and it’s incumbent on the landlord to assure these laws are complied with while protecting their investment and minimizing their liabilities.

And by that I mean people who have minimal experience making maybe (and that’s a big maybe) $100/ door after expenses with a dozen or so doors over say a ten year hold teaching people about how to invest.

I would like to minimize expenses at first by managing the property and future properties myself; however, I realize that eventually I will need help as I scale.

The HELOC is low risk as you’re paying minimal interest, and it’s basically your own money/equity, so there’s no timeline risk.

I have a lot of leads/showings and really would like a system that:1) Is automated (minimizes back and forth from email/phone calls)2) Has functionality to incorporate multiple team members with different availabilities3) minimizes no shows (text reminders)

The best way to explaining this is for you to download an IRR calculator spreadsheet or build your own simple one and play around with one.For what its worth most deals I deem meeting minimal IRR standards is 13-15% but you have to dig a little deeper to uncover the real placements of cashflows and capitalization events... and then dig even deeper to verify the assumptions such as occupancy, rent increases per year, and what reversion cap rate was used.Again I don't look for IRR cause its manipulated a lot instead I look at total return on a 5 year basis.

Luckily all of my rentals experienced minimal damage compared to so much destruction I've seen all around them.

The franchisees have little to no net worth to speak of and minimal liquidity on average.