Newbie looking for guidance, Feeling discouraged

[Stephanie Wells]

Appreciate any input! Here is my situation:

Only have 5K cash to put towards my next property. Having a hard time saving due to our current life situation so don't see this amount going up in the near future. I work part-time and my husband works full time so we would qualify for a conventional mortgage with a 25% down payment.

I moved into a single family home with my family this past January (30 year mortgage).
I have owned a duplex since 2015 which now cash flows nicely (gross of $1520/mo.) + has a good amount of equity because the area became extremely desirable over the past 2 years (still mortgaged with about 300K in equity). 

I was hoping to be able to buy another multi-family or even single family investment, but I'm now learning how hard it is to get a HELOC on an investment property (even more of a bummer to learn this because I was living in the duplex before moving and probably could have qualified for a HELOC before moving out!*smacks forehead*)

I really don't know about taking out a home equity/personal loan to use as a down payment since the money may be collecting interest for awhile since the market is so insane with homes getting snatched off the market by people with cash down payments and cash.

Is my only hope finding seller financing or is there something I'm missing? Thanks for your input!

[Jonathan Greene]

What's the rush here? You have a foundation, but you are trying to outpace your financing which can lead to major trouble if you grab too much leverage or over-leverage just to get more investments. Keep making that one property run better and better each year. I would be spending money on that to make sure it has no future foreseeable Cap Ex and then just save for the downpayment. The problem with all the rhetoric around real estate investing is the hyper-encouragement to get more and more, but leverage is not everyone's friend. Just work your current assets and save.