Live at your girlfriend's family's house, and get a property that is going to work for you, not a debt trap.Let me know if you need a referral for your future purchase in that area.

You don't want to take on credit card debt to make this work.

etc..If you are looking to leverage debt and come in w/ little to no money down (VA), I'd recommend owner occupying / house hacking / whatever you want to call it and depending on if you're looking at an SFR or duplex an FHA or conventional loan product will most likely work best. 

Locking in as much debt as you can at these rates is going to be a BIG deal in 10 years. 

You wont be able to count any of those rents because they haven't shown up on 2 years worth of tax returns yet, so this could lead to a Debt to Income issue.

All you do with a HELOC is transfer debt from one loan to another.

Over the long term, the rate difference will be immaterial because you have locked in a very low interest rate and can always refinance later if rates dip lower enough to justify the cost.I encourage folks to look for ways to invest without debt (equity partners, lease options, etc), but if you're going to get a loan, go for long-term, fixed rate. 

I filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy about a year ago to get rid of some old credit card debt from when I was in school that was really hindering my ability to move forward. 

I'm not sure if we'll be approved for that amount of debt (we only make about 90K a year between us), which is another thing I need to learn more about.

We both have excellent credit and no credit card debt.