Need some advice on next move to make

[Ciarraghe G.]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for advice on what to do as a next step in my investing journey. Sorry this is a long post but I want to give as much info as possible. 

My husband and I currently have 1 rental unit, a townhome which cashflows a bit over $500 a month in the Portland OR area, I have had this unit about 4 years now, so I got it for a great price at a good interest rate.

I also have my own home, and both of these properties have a lot of equity in them, I have about $260K worth of equity altogether that I could get on an HELOC if I wanted to (this is the 80% LTV less current mortgages, actual equity is more).

On top of the HELOC I could take out, I also have about $100K in stockpiled cash and another $100K I could take out as 401k loans. I'm currently paying above payment on these two existing properties an extra $900 a month to pay down the mortgages more quickly, which could quickly be freed up as well, as they both have low interest rates so this is not really the best use of my money.

I have great credit and day job income and qualify for a disgustingly huge mortgage level, even without rents included so mortgages are not an issue for me. I have a great lender as well, who I have a long term relationship with and is very investor friendly. I am a long term hold focused cash flow focused investor, equity is just icing for me. Small fix ups are ok (paint, carpet, counter replacement etc.), but larger ones are probably not something I want to really get into at the moment (full kitchen remodels, full plumbing or electrical replacements, etc.). I am most comfortable with SFR but am intrigued by a duplex to quad unit, but at the same time they worry me if I ever had to get out quickly and quality of tenant potential.

So my thoughts on my options are:

--Take out both HELOC's and 401k loans and sit on that cash in a money market or similar vehicle along with what I have already to wait for the crash (whenever it arrives), using my personal and rental cash flow and redirecting the extra I'm paying on those existing mortgages to pay off the HELOC and loans quickly

--Use my HELOC and stockpiled cash today to go into another, cheaper market somewhere else in the US, and buy up 3-8 more properties, either leveraged or outright. The Portland market prices are just ridiculous and the market is showing a very slight relative cooling, but as of May, inventory was still a 1.9 month of supply and prices are still rising, up another 1.9% from April to May, so I don't think there are deals to be had for someone like me doing this on the side, I just don't have the time. The other Oregon areas such as Salem, Eugene, Bend, etc. do have some great deals on paper but they are also longer term more unstable from a job market or tenant quality, so true deals are harder to find. Eugene and Bend have great AirBNB market potential but I worry about cleaning/turnover services being reliable and they are too far for me to drive to on a whim. I've lived in all of these areas at some point so I do know the areas pretty well and like them all.

--Take out the HELOC on the rental and my stockpiled cash and pay off the mortgage on my main home in full and call it a day until the crash comes along when I will have likely saved up more money and have equity in my home, but of an unknown amount.

--Become a hard money lender somehow

--Figure out how to get in on an apartment building somewhere (although I'm currently trying to build a new business and don't have time to simultaneously learn another one).

--Other creative thing I'm not aware of?

I have a financial adviser but he's a stocks/bonds/etc. person, and I don't want to increase my holdings in that area of finance any further, so I don't really know what kind of person to look for, for advice of this nature. I appreciate any thoughts you all may have.