@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. 

Properties are still moving in a 2-3 week period as opposed to the 2-3 days it was the past few years.Lenders aren't requiring anything more than before, just the proper qualifications to have the proper DTI for 5-6% rates which definitely lowers buying power compared to the 2-3% we had prior.  

Not opposed to that but deciding on that area, finding a realtor and hiring a management company comes with issues too.

You have to live somewhere, and it is always good when your tenant pays even half of that as opposed to none of it like a person buying their single family house would be. 

My question is - why do I not hear more about people doing home equity loans (with BRRR's and otherwise) as interest rates rise as opposed to cash-out refi's?