And, as you found out with the Lodi property, in that price range they will require some sweat equity on your part.  

@Ramona Beyer,I agree with @Dani Beit-Or reply, the numbers make this a good deal, but however you have other due diligence that comes into effect to see if you should buy it (Location, Vacancy, type of tenants, etc) if you like what you diligence finds, then buy it.Now for your second question, i think determines what your interest rates are for you HELOC, if you would get better rates with a mortgage go with the refinance, also if your able to put some equity in the property you might look into a BRRRR methodCheers,Anthony

Or does the partner have equity in the property?  

However, all the numbers I run do not present with a positive cash flow.

There are times to use monthly MI as well if you think you've found a great deal where you can force equity or improve the value of the property so much so that your current loan with monthly MI will be at 80% or lower LTV/loan to value after your improvements then monthly MI is better because you may end up refinancing or removing MI 6-24 months after closing.

So your first deal if you made 50k then you can keep it all for example as you have already paid 25k.People do not either have the money or they do not want to put themselves out there with equity in their house etc.Part of being successful is letting go and going for it.

The house needed a complete makeover so over the years we've transformed the house and earned us 70k of equity.

After a year, you will hardly have any equity in the property.

Another advantage of higher priced homes, is the power of leverage and the tenant paying off a higher amount of principal payments each month which increases your equity at much higher rates than for cheap homes

Also, some of these investors plan to move here themselves and want their investment properties positioned in the State they plan to live in.