Possibly use your heloc to invest in smaller widgets to build up actual cash first.

Image if I had 30, just 3 x those numbers.Directly investing in a turnkey rental or small MFH is a good way to start to learn and build up the war chest to go into my scaleable investments such as private placement syndications.

You can look it at 1 of 2 ways I see it. 1. you can walk away from the deal and try to find another one that works better, if you walk away from the deal you could always tell the owners to call you if they want to come down to numbers that work. 2. you do the deal at hand and live rent free allowing you to build up more capital for future purchases and build equity on the house assuming your market goes up.

. $90/mo won't build up very fast.Trouble with a lot of town homes is the HOA.

I'm young, I want to build up equity and cash flow through apartment related investments.What steps do you reccomend I take?

2.Thanks to @David Greene, I know I need to build up my “Core 4” team in the area I’m interested in.

Is it better to have a team of agents, or build up a great relationship with just one realtor?

It can also be done up to 100% of value, so you don't need to build up any equity.

That would solve all your problems and help you build up the track record part of things so the next deal you will have people lined up to invest. 

Once you have done some research into what you want to do the first thing I would do is begin reaching out to build up a team of an agent, a lender, a mentor (someone to bounce ideas off of) and a good GC or good sub contractors.