Then there you go.One thing I am looking to try to do but haven't done yet is buy something with zero down on seller finance, put the rehab on a 0% credit card, then refi the seller off in 12 months and pay back the card. 

My plan is to funnel the rental incomes from all three properties, along with my W2 income, back into the HELOC while covering all expenses from it as well.

We have life time losses to uncollectable rent/financing payments to prove we back up this claim.   

If you are going to use a HELOC you need to do a strategy that pays it back full(Flip, BRRR).

@Michael Almand, for a full line-by-line breakdown and scope of work, my preferred contractor will charge about $250 to walk the property but will credit it back if he and his team are given the job.

It is a one two family and a single in back.

.: Is it legal, per the IRS, to rent my primary home back to myself? 

Personally, If I could pull out a HELOC, I would use it to fix and flip which will typically make sense as you shouldnt be keeping the money out for that long and you can recycle it or pay it back and build off the capital that you got from. the flip.

Here's an old article I posted a few years back - Key is good communication. 

Kind of piggybacking off this same notion but I have a permitted shed in the back of my duplex that would make a great studio apt.