Seems there is no "common" way to pay yourself since everyone has a different strategy and each strategy will ultimately determine the best way to earn a living.

Its kind of natural that you will probably attract more buyers in the beginning.   

Because you do see this kind of stuff all the time. 

I'll look into the certification idea, but I'm thinking certifications won't be common in smaller towns.

So I'm looking into rentals, probably out of state since the California market is kind of high.My realtor says we can list the house for $1,010,000 now.

(What kind of splits?

It also depends on the kind of financing you have that will determine what may be a potential deal breaker, ie: if  you have an FHA loan and the house inspection comes back with multiple areas of chipping paint and the seller doesn't want to fix the issues.

Interesting opportunity kind of fell in my lap.

Devil's in the details of course but that's kind of a nutshell.

My concern is whether it is common for banks to have clauses in a HELOC product that will allow them to stop the draw period at any time due to discontent in dropping housing values.