Biggest downside of the HELOC, in my opinion, is that the interest rates are variable (although mine has actually decreased since last year).

My last combat tour was back in 2006 and internet was available.

The biggest thing you can do from a marketing perspective (regardless if it's DM, social, SEO, etc.) is consistency.

I am curious about what your biggest challenge with renting properties is in 2020?

The person whose name this four plex is in is supposedly 81, according to the internet, and I don’t want to hassle her, but I also think this could be a win-win deal.2.

No self sufficiency rule for 2 unit.Since you are in a high cost of living area, you will definitely get the biggest bang for your buck doing a low money down house hack using fha or VA loan (if you qualify) than putting 20% down on a random out of state market that you may not know very well.Best of luck!

That seems to be my biggest issue when running the numbers. 

The Homstead exemption is the biggest hurdle, so figure out how you're going to sidestep that first, as that will inform what type of property and what neighborhood you want to look at.

Luckily my tenants are another county and OK with their internet access.

When I first started doing this, my internet speed was 10mbps.