Jim and Dudes plumbing and heating prioritized my project due to long term relationship.

But if we tried to do that right now, in Sacramento, we would have almost no cash leftover and safety would probably be a concern for the types of neighborhoods we could live in, lol.

yeah, sure a niche here or there might provide some safety, but when the major trend is down, fighting it is a losing battle!

Of course, I have to have names of the people I am meeting at an apartment, for safety reasons.  

Your friend's timing is not very good IMO.3) buy with a margin of safety.

Which do you value most, growth or safety?

I presume we will not spoil our son and he will learn our frugal ways too, but I do want to prioritize good family experiences with him, so we will see.

We have to do safety smoke alarm testing anyway, so this is a great way to get into each room of the house. 

Unlike having your safety net money sitting in a savings account "earning" 0.2%, you can use the HELOC as emergency money and it doesn't cost you anything.If your goal is to generate cash flow to retire on in 10 years you won't get that via $100-$200/mo in cash flow on SFR in fly over country.  

We bought a rental house and I was fixing a safety hazard."