beginner needing advice

[Bradley Addington]

Hi BiggerPockets,

I've been a landlord for exactly a year but I feel very much like a newbie. I kind of stumbled into having a rental. After living in a home for 10 years another home right down the street became available that had some things I wanted (mainly pool and garage). So I bought the new home and kept the old as a rental which has worked out great. I am interested in acquiring more SFH rentals.

Some info on the rental - rents for 1900/mo, worth about 275k owe 160k.

I have 20k saved. But was curious about pulling out some equity from the rental either as a HELOC or cash out refi, in order to purchase another home outright for about 50k - 60k. One lender told me flat out no on either HELOC or cash out on an investment property. Another said he could not do HELOC due to the rental being less than 50 miles from my primary, and he could do a cash out up to 210k but the rate would be really high. I suppose I could just save up and pay for a property, but I see that equity sitting there and think it would make sense if I could tap into it. I guess another option would be to move again and rent this home out but my fiance and I see this as a kind of forever home so would like to avoid if possible.

Looking for any and all thoughts/advice, I am eager to get going on some more investing.