I would say one thing I wish I did when I started out was thinking about WHY I wanted to get started investing in real estate, as opposed to just jump in and do whatever "everyone else was doing". 

I'm preparing for the appraisal, which is based on the property's ability to cash flow, as opposed to its overall value/purchase price.   

We are not opposed to continuing to save or waiting a couple of more years to purchase.

You want to be just under the market so that people look and offer on your house as opposed to the competitions listings.

@Eudith VacioI think you meant you did the Limited 203k, as opposed to the Streamline 203k, which was eliminated back in Sept 2015. 

The friends claim would need to be stopped by an heir who could oppose the AP claim as an interested party.

The only way to find out is to compare side-by-side. i would recommend you call a broker, though, as opposed to a retail lender (avoid the quicken loans, lending trees, and loan depots of the world). 

I did suggest a 1031, which would have made things easier and less costly for the client, but the client is getting older and was opposed to taking on a new investment.

Are you referring to selling my primary residence as opposed to the investment property, which would avoid any tax or deferment of taxes altogether?

Benefit with doing a HELOC is that you would only pay interest on what you utilize so if you are only looking to use the funds for a few home projects and emergency fund it might be a better option as opposed to doing a full refi plus cash out because then you would be paying interest on the full amount of the new loan and not to mention most likely refinancing into a new higher interest rate on your first mortgage.