I normally follow up with people to see if they were interested and what they thought.  

My goals are to gradually build wealth and cash flow over time while having a normal engineering career. slow and steady wins the race I guess :)I have been considering two common newbie strategies either owner occupying a duplex or to buy a simple single family property such as a townhouse for less but then plan to move within the next year or two and move on to the next property while renting the other.

Then it does turn into a normal loan that you cannot draw from.  

Normally, standard C.A.R lease contract should stated most of the things you mentioned.2.

Is this additional fee normal?

(Normally a 3 day turn around from when the inspector is onsite to when the money is in your bank)17) What does the draw process look like?

What I  mean by 'true' -  is the property is held free and clear with no liens and close at the title company (title transfer into your name), etc (just like a normal bank financing, but held by a private individual).  

Combining the your cash with your HELOC could allow you to make a larger than normal investment that should theoretically make more than the interest rate on any of your loans. 

They essentially will need to apply for a tax ID # (ITIN) since they normally don't have a SS# and setup a U.S. bank account to take in their distributions from the partnership which are typically paid quarterly.  

High rental areas normally always get engineered.