HELOC verses RISK- advice?

[Martin Nowak]

My interest is buy and hold at this juncture Although not opposed to a flip. I have 5 active properties and I'm blessed to have 100% occupancy. Two of the homes (small ones) are paid off. I have a realtor who is quite conservative and suggests I avoid leveraging. I've read on this forum that leveraging is one way to grow faster. My other piece of information is I that I bought a small house that needed a bunch of work and i did 90% of the work literally myself. New kitchen, bath, flooring, windows, drywall for 30%, fixtures etc. It nearly killed me lol. I spent every moment outside of my 9-6 job rehabbing. It saved me money but my interest is low for the work now. So what's your advice to me...HELOC or kNOCK