Advice needed for potential first investment

[Matthew Phelps]

Hello BP. I am reaching out because I am in a bit of an unusual situation and need help/advice. My brother and I share and own a house in Whitehouse, TX. It is actually a Duplex. We both have lived in the home the past few years. I live on one side of the duplex and he lives in the other. He is wanting to sell the house to get his own place. The house on tax documents with land comes out to $111k. So if we were at least able to get what it was worth via tax documents, it would be about $55k to each of us. I, on the other hand am not too excited to sell. I like the location and I have been able to save a lot of money since we own and I am not paying rent or mortgage. I was considering buying his half of the property from him so that he can go get his own place, and I could keep the house and rent out his side. His side does need a few repairs that would probably come out to about $10K. My question is: How should I go about financing in order to buy him out? Would a HELOC be the best route? Should I do a conventional loan? I don't have much capital to "put down" for a conventional loan. The plan would be to buy him out. Fix up his side, rent it out, then eventually rent my side out. And have the rent payments going towards the loan that was taken to buy him out. Any Ideas or recommendations? Thanks!