What would you do?

[Kain Kim]

Hi all, 

My primary residence home is worth ~$1.3M, and I almost have no mortgage (very small amount with 3% APR). I'm thankful for this.

I'm looking to buy my first rental property (probably via BRRRR strategy) sometime this year if I could. But I thought I should first know what I'm doing. So I got my real estate license and have been studying myself to gain some experience and knowleage in real estate before I make a move. Fortunately I do have quite a bit of equity in my primary residence, but unfortunately I don't have much cash.

The questions I have are,

1. For my first rental property, I would most likely need to cash out of my current mortgage OR get a HELOC loan. Which one would you recommend? Again, I'm looking to do BRRRR.

2. Should I start big or small? If I have access to my equity up to $1M, how would you invest that? ~$200K-400K (or even less) on a property and ~$50K-100K on rehab? or buy multiplex home? I think I should start small, tbh as I don't have much experience..

3. If I want to buy a property that's worth ~$200-300K, I would probably have to go to an area that's not preferable (low income, high crime rate, etc.). Or should I go find one in a suburban area like a couple of hours away from the city? I'm even thinking about an area near casino

I'm still in the early stage of my real estate journey. Any advice would be highly appreciated. Thank you!!