New to investing... What to do with $200k HELOC?

[Susan Snodgrass]

Hello BP Community!

First time poster here! My husband and I are both teachers living in southern Orange County, CA, and we want to jump into real estate investing. Since our area in California is very expensive, we are looking to invest in long-term buy and hold properties out of state. We are interested in SFRs, as well as small multi-families. We have been looking into some turnkey companies, and would be willing to go that route, but would be even more excited to build a team in an area and find properties ourselves.

I have been learning so much from the forums on BP! I feel like we still have SO much more to learn, but also don't want to get stuck in analysis paralysis, and are ready to get started!

We currently have about $500k in equity in our own home, and are in the process of taking out about $200k as a HELOC to start investing. My question is what would be the best use of that money? Our initial idea was to use some of it as down payment(s) on one or more properties, but we are a little lost on the best area to invest in this current market. We are looking to buy one or more properties in the $80-$100k range, but are open to spending more for the right property. We are hoping to maximize our cash flow so we can pay off any HELOC money we use, and repeat the process as soon as possible.

Any advice on best markets to get us started? Since we would be investing long-distance, we are hoping to find something that needs no/minimal work done, and would also like to find a property management company to manage it for us. 

Also any advice on the the best way to use our HELOC and get started would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!