The 1st Step to Starting Real Estate Business

[RaVette Taylor]

Hello, I have some questions regarding the current situation I am in and what is the right direction in starting my real estate business.  

Here is my situation:  My husband and I currently own our home.  We purchased it Feb 2013, so we have been living in it a little over 2 years. We bought the house for 240000.  We went through a down payment assitance program, Neighborworks.  If we sale the home or refinance before 5 years from buying the home we will have to pay $15000 up front.  If we wait after the 5 years to sale or refinance then the $15000 is forgiven. Our current interest rate is 3.875%. We have a current balance of 218000.  We have about 60K - 70K in equity in our home.  We are interested in buying a 2nd property (investment property). 

Our 1st dillema is if we should sale our current residence and get more $$$ from the equity in the home to be able to put towards an investment property or two? Or if we should take out a HELOC on our primary residence and use that HELOC for down payment on investment property? By the way if we take out HELOC we will not have to pay the $15000 but we would only get a HELOC in the amount of $30000.

If we do go the route of taking out a HELOC on primary residence, what would be the best loan on our 2nd property to appy for? I have been hearing about Hard Money Loans, Conventional Loans, or even doing a FHA loan again.

We are also considering selling our primary residence and buying a bigger home and investment property at the same time or buying a duplex, down-sizing on our current home, and living in the investment property and renting out the other side.  

We just have so many dillema's and want to make the right decision.  Please help.  Thanks in advance for your help and answers.