New investor.Considering HELOC or other strategy.Unique situation

[Joel Ubiera]

Hey everyone! This is my very first post. I just joined BiggerPockets, and I'm a fairly new investor. I'm in the Atlanta market. I'm in the process of buying my third property, a single family house for $80,000, and it's appraised at $140,000. It's a great deal! I really want to make the best out of this deal, and I don't want to mess it up.

The catch is that I took out a loan through my credit union for $16,000 in order to make the down payment. The good thing is that I have a tenant already, and the cash flow will be able to cover the payments for that loan. The tenant says he wants to buy the house in a year at market value. 

Where can I go from here? I would love to continue to invest now, but I can wait at least a year to sell if that's the wisest decision. I'm considering getting a HELOC, paying off the $16,000 loan in order to avoid interest, and using the remaining $44,000 in equity to buy and flip a few properties. What are your thoughts on this idea? Any alternatives? Anything in particular you would do in my situation?