The thought occurred to me that since my goal is to build a cabin, perhaps it less important which city/area I choose.

Use the heloc for rehab costs on your next projects. 

Also, everyone's resources, goals, and risk tolerance are different, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to investing.

This way, outside of appreciation, when you pull it out in a few years you could potentially get even more out of it.There are so many ways to approach it, but if your goal is offset the monthly and interest rates, and it helps you purchase sooner rather than later, cool.

I moved here from Florida after seeing the projected growth.

If your goal is to maximize rental income, adding a bedroom or bathroom often achieves that.

Agree that amount looks very small another option, not sure what your goal is, but if you are looking to purchase some down the road, change up your strategy and maybe do a personal line of credit for now.

is this your first ever project? 

For example, a real estate syndication project that generates passive losses year one could do this.

We've decided to scale back on acquisitions and have started scouting out talent to add to our team to be better prepared for what's to come.While we believe we could greatly benefit from bringing on an Integrator, project manager, and construction manager as soon as possible, we are looking at cost/benefit for our first hire.