What would you do if you were in my shoes? Save up or use HELOC?

[Matthew L.]

Hey everyone,

I am a somewhat new real estate investor. I currently live in a house hack duplex that I purchased in 2019. My mortgage balance is about 206k and the home is now worth about 280-290k after improvements and appreciation. My original plan was to rent out the property and go do another deal with an owner/occupied low DP loan after about a year. Unfortunately the only way I could get my significant other to "buy into" living in the two family was to make some really nice improvements to our unit. I did a major renovation with some higher end finishes. She is not going to move into another property unless I did the same type of thing. This means I will probably need to get my next multifamily with a traditional full down payment loan. I would like to treat this one as solely an investment anyway vs. my personal home. I don't have enough liquid cash saved up for a full down payment but could potentially get a HELOC to cover the down payment. I really don't want to wait for how long it would take to save up for a full down payment. Has anyone done this with success or have any other creative ideas for a down payment? I know I would want to factor this into my cashflow and property analysis. DTI shouldn't be an issue as my only debt is my mortgage.