Cash out refi or HELOC with equity or continue to save

[Jenny Picot]

Hi everyone! I’ve been listening to the podcast and reading the forum for months now, but wondering what others would do in my specific situation. I currently own a primary home near Denver, CO that I house hack. The payment on this is ~1800/mo and I receive 1100/mo. Purchased the property for 400k with 15% down and it is now worth ~600k. It has a 3.37% interest rate

I also have a successful short term rental (in the mountains of CO) that I cash flow about $1k-$2k per month depending on the season. This investment property was purchased for 250k with 20% down and is now worth ~330k. This property has a 3.5% rate that I bought down when I got the property because at the time I knew I was going to hold for a while.

All of this being said I have a good savings rate, but I want to use the equity I have to purchase my next deal instead of waiting to save up. I currently have 23k I can put down but I’m looking at deals that require about 45k down.

I'm wondering what everyone's opinion might be on how I can best utilize a HELOC and or cash out refinance to get cash to help me purchase a duplex to long term rent. As a side note, I can't get another short term rental in my area unfortunately due to new regulations and how the prices have risen. A cash out refinance seems to make the most sense but would be a bummer to lose the good interest rate.

What other perspective am I not seeing?

What would you do in this circumstance?