I'm making this my year to become educated enough to be able to start and excel in my real estate career and maybe even buy my first property.

If you had multiple renovations to make at once that would be a larger expense and difficult to save up for then a HELOC might make sense.

In our area, it is difficult to find well qualified market tenant that can pay 1500+ rent reliably and be stable for a few years.

I'm sure @Jacob Perez can tell you, that qualification on a $1MM mortgage has become considerable more difficult at "A" lenders.  

Great to see you take that first and maybe most difficult step in real estate investment: reaching out on BiggerPockets.

BRRRR can be difficult in Austin - in particular the refinance part.

One book that I do like but would NOT recommend at this stage in your investing career is the ABCs of Real Estate Investing, because he mixes a lot of simple stuff that beginners need to know, with a lot of very advanced stuff that is specific to running a company that invests in large apartment buildings.

It can be difficult to switch gears sometimes, & be “unproductive” playing with the kids....I try to keep in mind the quote (which I’m paraphrasing) “don’t be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life”.

I think you will find it difficult to meet agents who are going to offer up off market listings to you and volunteer to do a lot of the work for you as a new investor. 

And don't forget... if you don't have a W2 job... getting financing is really difficult.