I'm self employed so that's another strike against me.I guess my question is: should I shop around for a HELOC with other banks or are they all going to have the same formula and say that my debt to income is too high?

Our RGE gas/electric is $209 a month, water/refuse is about $60 a month and our mortgage/escrow with insurance and taxes is $870 a month.If I've understood some of the rental formulas correctly I should be looking at mortgage/escrow x2 = total monthly rent if utilities are paid by the tenants?

I understand the formulas pretty much, just NO confidence in my guessiments of what things will cost. :) Account Closed had a good suggestion saying: If you want to be successful, hitch YOUR wagon up to someone already doing projects by joining their team for one or two and learn the ropes first.

@Jon Graboyes Is there a formula that you use to include U+O into the numbers for analyzing a deal?

Rent all 2 beds at 700 a week.700 X 50 = 35,000 month X 12= 420,000 gross income420k divided by 2 = 210,000 NOI50% costs is5% property management15% vacancy loss turnover30% operating and expensesSo based on the quick formula buying at a 10CAP going in the most I could pay is 2,100,000.Now this doesn't look at deferred CAPEX and a bunch of other items.This is a down and dirty 10 second calculation I do in my head to see if it's a possible or not to look into further.You have to really know the markets.Example current income is based off of 700 with many leases fixing to expire.A current investigation of the market shows competitor rents have decreased from 8 months ago and are now 675 a month.To retain many of the tenants on renewal all things being equal your rent rates will most likely go down along with cash flow.I could go on and on but this is how I do my quick calculation.

There is no simple formula, it's subjective, and you can bet that if the deal goes sideways, broker's (subjective) judgement will be the subject of serious scrutiny.There is a lot to this act.

With this formula, I am now convinced more than ever that I will have to invest somewhere other than Long island which adds a management company expense into the mix.

That is the winning formula Note Buyers use.     

Most investors follow a variant of the following formula After Repair Value x 70% - Repairs = Maximum Allowable Offer.

If you choose a blanket mortgage, you can still refinance and sell properties, though it's a little trickier of a formula.