HELOC on my house to get some Investment Money?

[Karla Sprowell]

Over 7 years ago I purchase my SFH (a REO) with an FHA Loan and a 3.5% Interest Rate. We consistently made extra payments towards the Principal and currently (due the high jump in prices recently) our house is worth more than twice what we paid for. That seems great since it has a pretty good equity now.

We are learning through BP books, podcasts and webinars about the many possibilities to invest inReal Estate and are eager to begin. Buy and Hold seems like our preferred flavor and would like to find a property to purchase that may have a SFH with an ADU to rent (not precisely a Duplex since those are hard to find around here and we'd like to stay close to our first deals).

We have some savings and additionally would like to take the equity on our house but have some questions:

*Can we (or should we) first refinance our house to convert it into a Conventional Loan to "free" our FHA purchase availability? We'd like to keep our current house but rent it and we'd be moving to the new property that would have to be near by, so we have no problem occupying the unit for 1 or 2 years. (House Hacking)

* Would the HELOC on the house be "step number 2"?

We just don’t know if those possibilities can happen together or not and if so, if they are a good move for newbies like us.

Also, if you know of any LOAN EXPERTS that already have Investments in the Tampa Bay Area and are open to have a conversation with us, it would be fantastic!

Thanks,

K.