More than Four Properties; Rental HELOC?

[James Free]

For over a decade, cash-out refinances have been a great way to tap the equity in rental properties without selling them. These have generally been easy to do in part because interest rates kept getting lower, so there was benefit to refinancing even if you didn't want cash out.

As interest rates creep up, the benefits of using HELOCs rather than refinances to tap new equity will grow, because investors won't want to increase the interest rates on their existing debt. This will make it more important to be able to find lenders who will do HELOCs on investment property. A few lenders are commonly mentioned in these forums as good HELOC lenders, but all of them require that you own no more than four properties total. Has anyone found a lender that doesn't have that restriction?