You need to analysis to see if the cash flow on your current property makes sense, and also analysis how much equity you can pull with a Heloc.

You need to make sure you understand what a deal is ,though, because the seller is putting their financial future in your hands, and you have to pull through for them.

Hopefully, I won't be pulling my hair out by this time next year!

For this reason, I have stopped looking for properties to purchase (but will keep my existing LA properties) and have started to put my money into syndicated deals and investment funds that are a bit more conservative and by their nature (i.e., hard money lending, litigation settlement funds, etc.) might hold up better in a downturn and aren't correlated with the RE market. 

He had to reply to a couple of my questions with "let me talk to my mentor about that" so somebody is pulling the strings somewhere. 

Good luck, and i'm super duper analytical and trying to be paralyzed but also make the proper decision and pull the trigger, luckily I moved from my first home and turned that into a rental. 

Having worked for Bear Stearns I can attest to the toxic nature of corporate America.

I don’t want to waste time with ”renters only” so the deposit requirement naturally sifts the “renters only” out.

As many have probably experienced, you'll conduct your "research" and find favorable possibilities and still be hesitant to pull the trigger.

By the way, if you just want to pull equity out of your current home - I got a 90% LTV home equity line from Key Bank (they go even higher than 90%!)