Cash Out Refinanced Live-In Flip...Now What?

[Nicholas Smith]

Hey guys! My wife & I finally finished working on our house we purchased in 2016. We purchased it for $110,000, put around $5000 in rehab into the property, and a month ago it appraised for $154,500!!!! I got a little over $17,000 back.

I inquired on getting a rental property next, only to find out that my debt to income ratio is slightly too much to get a loan through the bank. My car has about $5,000 left on it. I'm paying 365 a month in the car payment. 

I was thinking about holding the 17K to help me get a hard money loan so that I can do a deal, but I starting thinking that maybe my first step should be to get my debts down so that I can do deals without the worry of them not getting excepted because of the debt to income ratio. What do you guys think? I'm leaning towards killing some debt since I'll still have some money to use on a down payment.