Also, what position is the seller in as far as need/want to sell? 

(in a row)I'm not sure all this impacts. who is responsible for snow removal, repairs, etc?

You'll certainly find more lenders wanting to lend in first position.Regardless, the new loan would need to be large enough to pay down the HELOC while also meeting the lender's guidelines for whatever lien position they were taking.I'm no lender...

The current tenant claims they were there when he moved in...... in going through my records, my move in agent and the tenants placing agent have no record of a move in condition sheet filled out by the tenant.Lease states that if the tenant does not submit one, the house is considered damage free.House bought in 5/2014..all new paint....one tenant previous for 12 months...this tenant for the remaining time until now.My agent did the walk through post last move out and did not note any issues where she felt I needed to repaint except one room, which I did.Since its so many walls in different rooms, the estimate is $1000 to repaint these areas.So the recent tenant is claiming they were there already and its normal wear and tear and is my responsibility to fix.My position is that there is no documentation of his claim and if he had just left them alone I could have fixed the issues way cheaper since it would have been done correctly from the start....it would have been way better to just leave a bunch of nail holes in the walls than have blotchy paint everywhereOpinions?

My current rental property has about 50000$ in equity but is not cash flow positive, doesn't cost anything but still no cash flow , another negative is that it is about 2000 miles away and makes it hard to deal with tenant issue, thankfully no major issues have come up YET.

If tenants decide to provide any new information (not previously disclosed) after lease signing, Agent shall have the option to carefully consider this additional information and either decide to terminate this Lease upon three days notice to quit if the additional information has the potential of unfavorably impacting the previously signed mutually benefiting lease agreement, or Agent can decide to make adjustments accordingly including but not limited to any additional screenings as needed, rent/security deposit/utility fee or any other applicable fee raises, pet fee implementations as applicable, request for emotional support documentation for new pets and request for completion of a pet addendum to modify existing lease.Unless otherwise communicated, Tenants are required to resubmit application for any Rental Lease Renewals.Tenants shall promptly notify Agent in writing of any subsequent change in the information provided by Tenants on Tenant’s lease application.

Are there things a newbie can do / provide that would be useful to those in a position to provide legitimate mentoring?

The amount was $500 less than the amount provided partly due to the fact I helped with the installation.Question, how do these two claims impact my taxes for this calendar year? 

What would one recommend investing in a Major downtown, metropolitan area, like downtown LA or SD for generating positive cash flow?

This will position yourself well so if the market does take a sharp decline you will be positioned to take advantage.