You might want to cover it with vinyl siding.

If the landlord's already owed $500 from the security (say 2 months into a 12 month lease), that may not leave much more security to cover all future damages/unpaid rent/cleaning fees/etc. at move-out.

After negotiations, the seller just submitted his final over.Heres the deal:$154,900 purchase price and seller agreed to cover all closing costs.Monthly expensesMortgage: $840Taxes: $50Insurance: $225Flood insurance: $60Vacancy of 5%: $107Cap Ex: $172Total monthly expenses: $1454All 4 units generate $21503 units rented out with me in the 4th generate $16251st year cashflow: $171/monthAfter I move out and can rent out the 4th unit cashflow: $696/monthWhat do you guys think?

She has experience in this area and has written extensively on the subject for the BP blog.

This has been known to cause disagreement on projects because it can be viewed as subjective - what the GC may think is 50% complete, you may think otherwise, hence why I mention communication and building relationships is key. 

The original plan was for the tenant's side to pay 100% of the mortgage / taxes / insurance / PMI, while I cover trash and water for both sides. 

You'd certainly want to have an umbrella policy in place, in case your business insurance policy doesn't cover everything.- You mentioned mobile bathrooms (hopefully not port-a-johns). 

Rent covers a lot of different expenses that new LL's don't see going in, then try to recoup from tenants. 

There are some HOA's out there that will only allow a certain percentage of units to be rented out and may have some other restrictions in the CC&R's.As for your question, the "best" way of doing something in real estate is typically subjective, but having a HELOC payment, in addition to the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and HOA dues, just increases the chances of having a less profitable property or one that may not cash flow at all.

Can you perform a Subject to owner financing or "Subject to" on a USDA financed house?