For an extra 800/m (this is a random number)It usually isnt worth it.The investors who have the best success do the following things:1.

Like "renting to section 8 tenants is actually really easy", "your agent is not on your team just connect with people like me doing hundreds of deals every day and use my team instead", that hood properties will have "15-25% net caps" for beginner out of state investors when in reality they will definitely lose money every month due to the rent not being enough $ to maintain a rental property, never mind all the tenant issues involved with this property class or the difficulty of managing them remotely... but he's done thousands of them just this week while sitting on the beach in Florida... 

Then you could house hack to make extra money for your next down payment. 

If you're 25 or 35 and that monthly rent check gives you an extra vacation a year for the rest of your life, that might be fun too.Good luck and congratulations for being in the path of progress I guess.

Sales prices and mortgage rates make it really hard to find good deals today.Wholesaling sounds good, but you could make better money working extra shifts as a nurse.You could look for run-down properties as buy-and-holds.

The extra cost is typically well worth the benefit. 

That would mean the extra 5k would technically come out of my pocket, right? 

We will take the quick deal any day over making a few extra thousand bucks.  

Remember to always budget 10-25% (depending on age/condition) extra as a buffer.

. :)   I'll likely do the HELOC and not worry about the extra taxes on gains over $500k when I finally do sell someday.