if you can "pay the HELOC off aggressively," then you should just... save up a down payment. 

It's worth checking out at least :) Also, there's a lot of meet up groups involving real estate in the greater Seattle area, where you could network to learn more information as well.

What did Syracuse do to end up on this list?

if bigger pockets partnered with hospitable, does that mean we can sign up for free?

The check book control package look attractive, at $1095 after a July 4th $200 discount :-) https://www.broadfinancial.com/self-directed-ira-plans-custodian-checkbook-control/I will need to set up one with pretax 401K , then another with after tax Roth IRA, so, want to make sure to control the expenses/cash flow of start up costs. 

I have helped a lot of out of state investors purchase properties for 50,000 here that rent for $800 to $850Good property management as well we can get you hooked up with.

I work at a Warehouse Developer that builds from ground up, then rents them out and manages everything so I get to see a lot of sides of Real Estate. 

I'm definitely still in the exploration phase to see if I will end up going this route, but as I've furnished multiple units, I've realized I don't really enjoy that part of the process nor is design a strength of mine, so if I can hire it out to someone who will do a better job than me for a reasonable price, I will.

I'd lean towards a full demolish as well...either way, headaches, but I'd rather have ground up headaches than remodel headaches ;) not to mention speed

You may end up finding a tenant at $1950 and be “happy”.