New to buying rental properties

[Bradley Stout]

My wife and I just bought a home in February of this year and we are currently house hacking while we reno the upstairs where we are living. We have quite a bit of equity in our home even before any updates. We are really wanting to buy a town home rental property in a college town, that we plan to rent to a single family. We are not sure how to go about financing this purchase. We have enough equity to cover the property, but we again don't know how to do this! Whether we should take out a HELOC, or refinance our current place, or just use our home as collateral. I'm sure there are other options out there, but please send your advice!