Leveraging Estate Property

[Chris Law]

I am new to real estate investing. Looking for some help.

My parents passed away and left me their house. It is fully paid for and I currently rent it out. Because it was part of their estate, and I am the Executor and Sole Heir, I have not bothered converting the title from their name to mine. The house is appraised at ~$100,000. I would like to either take out a mortgage or a HELOC on this property and use that capital to invest in either other rentals or REITs. I have 2 questions regarding this:

1. Am I going to have to convert the Title over to my name in order to get a Mortgage or HELOC?
2. Do you think it is wise to use hard cash from the HELOC to buy other properties, and then recoup that capital once I finance the new property?

Does that make sense? Thanks - Chris