Trading Up to Multi-Family building. Advice needed.

[Auria Styles]

Hi,

I bought my first investment property many years ago and it has since tripled in value. I'm guessing I have about $700-800k in equity to play with. I've been looking at multi-unit investments and am wondering if I should try to cash out my current investment and do a 1031 exchange for a multi-unit property (20+) or take out a HELOC on my first property to finance the down payment on a multi-unit building. Any advice or thoughts would be welcomed.

Auria

[Mike D'Arrigo]

@Auria Styles I think that doing a 1031 exchange in to a larger property is a good way to go. A lot of our investors that are sitting on a lot of equity are currently doing that. The challenge that you'll have is that you will have 45 days to identify a new property from the time you sell your existing one. This can be a real challenge in markets with limited inventory (most of them). I highly recommend looking for the new property before you close on the one you are selling. Is there a particular market that you will be exchanging in to?