I reached out to him and talked through some details of what I wanted to do and how we might be able to work together, he seemed committed to the idea and we set up a time to meet.

It takes thousands of hours of focused and intentional work/studying, but if you commit and put in the work you can make it happen.

Weighing if I should upgrade my existing HVAC and rent a 1 bedroom condo that I live in now near NYC or sell. 

Weighing if I should upgrade my existing HVAC and rent a 1 bedroom condo that I live in now near NYC or sell.

@Jeff Mills, here are few options:- borough from 401K (up to 50% or $50k)- use existing credit card 0% BT offer (for personal CC - I don’t go over 30% of available credit, for some business cards, that don’t report on my personal credit I do 100%).

Also, if you are refinancing an existing mortgage with the HELOC, you'd also want to factor in the additional interest you'd be paying on that balance. 

I'd say one problem here is that the appraiser didn't understand what had been done to the building, or the area where it exists. 

A handyman landlord working with minimal help can do good work in these places, stay on top of things, and keep perhaps ten of these tight little ships running with practically zero outside labor costs eating into his profits or excessive time commitments, while he does modest, leisurely little spec rehabs and occasionally larger live-in flips anywhere he finds deals, accelerating his timeline to  pay off his street of moneymakers. 

I'm a 20-something with no kids, no pets--very few commitments.

We are giving each other a 5 year commitment; at which time each partner can ask to be bought out of his 50%, either by the initial partner or by somebody else, or the partners can agree to sell the property and cash out 50/50 on any profits.