Which Path to take regarding Financing

[Colton Hamilton]

Hello BP!

I am currently struggling to figure out my financing path to my first real fix and flip. A little background on where I stand currently.

My personal bank account is nothing to brag about and but I would be able to come up with 10k-20k cash.

I am living in my primary residence that I just bought in July with barely any equity to it. The plan is to move in July and turn it into a rental property. Wanted to keep it under a primary mortgage so I can benefit from having the lower interest rate. 

I am working full time as a welder making 600-700 a week. 

I own one rental with $1150 rent income with a cashflow of $490. I only owe 71k on it and if I was to get it reappraised it would appraise between 130k-160k. New term for me but I finally get to use it in the correct context. The property was a BRRR.

I am actively seeking to possibly put a HELOC on my investment property in which I would use the funds for the rehab costs or if I could use those funds for a down-payment and closing cost on a property (I don't know if I can). Having a hard time finding a lender willing to do that (hard it was pretty scarce). Everyone I have reached out to wants to do a cash-out refinance (COR). A couple of them said 75% COR and one said 80% COR with a 5 year fixed amortized and a 15-20 year term with a 4-5% rate.

I am currently in talks with Lima One Capital but after reading some reviews I am pretty skeptical of them. I am wondering if searching out HMLs worth it more than traditional banks. I don't know anyone for Private Money Lenders although I have my father-in-law interested but he told me he doesn't have a lot of cash on hand as he invests most of his income else where. I am looking to get more details on what exactly he invest in and whether we could use that to leverage. 

A question off topic. For flipping houses do you need to hire a GC even if we know how to do most all the work ourselves? Or just have a GC sign off on the work that was done?

Thanks!

Colton