To me, my equity is completely dead if it is tied up in a property  and as long as I use all of that leverage intelligently I can unlock it using the HELOC in order to get a return on the equity.

The photos in the listing are awful. 

The house looks to be in good condition in a decent area judging by all of the photos he took.

You should now download and install Google Earth on your computer and look at the selection of older photos for the land you want to buy. 

This assumes the property is clean, has good photos, and is on par with other market standards.10 weeks or so of vacancy shows the listing is stale and folks just aren't interested in what you're offering at that price point.

No interior photos whatsoever.7.

There are too many photos of the same rooms from different angles - and that gets a tad exhausting. 

They have great hi-res photos to give you an idea of the competition.

Maybe next time I'll do a surprise visit but for now this works just fine for me, I don't see any outweighing advantages to the surprise visit.I gave my friend a list of about 4 things to check per property (photo or ask resident about history), 4 properties.

Are their listings detailed with good quality photos?