Best way to finance moving forward

[Collin Smith]

As of tomorrow, my personal home will be paid off!! We have worked tirelessly over the last few years to get this done, so we have been paying a lot into it each month. This is going to free up a couple thousand dollars each month, that will make it more comfortable to further our investment purchases. Our goals for our investment properties (buy and hold) is to provide enough income to not need to work as much, but we still want to work because we love what we do. Currently our personal investment portfolio is a single property with a SFH and a duplex on it. There is a mortgage on it, which we just bought back in September. After the mortgage payment on it we are left with $1000 a month to cover our Capex, insurance, taxes,... For funding our next property, there are a couple options that I would like opinions on. One would be to use a HELOC on my primary residence (roughly a $220,000 home value) to be able to buy "cash" and have the rent pay me back until I can use the HELOC again. The second option would be to go the route of a traditional mortgage for our next investment property. What would the benefit of each be? Or do you buy quickly with the HELOC to get it and the refi into a traditional? This seems like it would be a lot of closing expenses, though. I am also tempted to use the HELOC to fund a flip, but I am not sure I am there yet.

[Jerry Padilla]

@Colin Smith

If you plan to borrow the money long term, I would suggest a cash out refinance on your primary residence....... Than use this cash as down payments for several future properties. Let the rental income in these future properties pay back all the mortgages, including your primary. HELOC's are adjustable rates, so they are more risky long term, if rates go up.