Best practice for expanding from my 1 rental property

[Trevor Seely]

I wanted to post this on here to get some advice or get the ball rolling on what I should be looking at to grow my portfolio. To give a little story of where I am at, I currently live in Omaha, Ne and moved here for my job, currently renting. I own a condo that I purchased at the age of 19 and have been successfully renting out for the last 2 and half years. I cash flow under $200 a month on the property. Loan amount left on the property is $117,000 and the property is estimated around $180,000 currently. 

I am living in Omaha, NE currently renting an apartment for the last year as it was on short notice and wasn't in the spot to buy property. I am currently looking to get into house hacking finding a duplex, triplex or quadplex, possibly even a single family property that I could add a mother in law suit. Financing is where I am seeking to gain the some advice. I have little cash reserve to put down on other property, I do make fairly great money and could save enough for a down payment in 6 months. I also was exploring the possibility of a HELOC or even selling the property and doing a 1031 exchange. What would you guys do in this situation? Would you wait 6-12months to expand the portfolio, would you take out a HELOC and use that to purchase a property or would you sell current property and put into a bigger asset?

Thanks for you time guys anything is appreciated.

[Alex Olson]

@Trevor Seely I can show you what some 1031 exchange clients have done in the past and talk you through some options. On the surface I would buy a townhouse style fourplex and rent out the other 3 units and live in one unit, rent out your bedrooms as well and then refinance in a year and buy another. Or, you could also 1031 exchange out of it and buy a larger complex if you are tired of having roommates and living next to your tenants. Best way to scale quickly is through buying right and using a 1031 exchange.