Obtaining Financing for next (3rd) Deal

[Travis Wiggins]

I currently have three doors. I got into real estate investing on accident and have been self landlording for ten years. My goal for 2021 is to tighten up my game and start doing this intentionally, including acquiring at least one new property this year. I have considerable equity in the rental properties I already own. My plan has been to take out a HELOC on one or two of those properties to put some of that equity to use, likely with the BRRRR strategy. After talking with a lender that does HELOC on rental properties, I was told I may be eligible for a line of credit potentially as high as 300K. I was excited about having access to this much capital!! Then, after obtaining all the documentation and actually applying for the HELOC, the same lender told me I would have to pay down a substantial amount of my student loan debt in order to qualify for ANY line of credit. Bummer!! I am not prepared to do that at this point.

So now my question is this….Do I keep searching for a lender that will give me the HELOC without paying down my debt? (I have read and been told that I need to get used to hearing NO) Or do I find another avenue to obtain the capital for my next investment? Is a hard money lender a good option? What else should I be considering?