New construction, no mortgage

[Haile Dawud]

Hello,

I bought a small house for $35,000 last Nov (2022). The house needs to be remodeled and once it's completed, the ARV will be $198,000 per appraisal last week. I'm using my HELOC from my first home to fund the remodel. Once that's been paid back, I won't have a mortgage on the property. I'm wondering if it would be a good ideal to do a cash-out refinance and use the equity to fund other projects which will put a mortgage on the house or keep that property mortgage-free and use it as collateral since I will have a house valued at $198,000 with no additional debt.
I know it all depends on personal strategy but I’m interested in what options there are that can position me to where I’m financially ahead.

Thank you

[Chris Seveney]

@Haile Dawud

Assuming the property can get financing and you qualify for lending getting leverage to fund other deals is not a bad idea. Depending on what your HELOC is you may still want to just use that (might be better interest rate). Only caution I would throw out is make sure to not over leverage yourself