Is A HELOC Right For Me

[Guevara M.]

Seasoned investors, for years I've been telling myself that I'm going to get serious about real estate investing and have never done it.  Years ago I did purchase a small 1 bedroom condo that I've been renting out but that's as far as I got.  I'm now 40 years old and done with all the partying where I wasted a ton of money that I could have invested and I'm now 100% serious about taking the next step in investing.  But I'm not real sure on what step I should take first.  I like the idea of flipping houses but I would also like to buy and hold with positive cash flow.  

I've been serching the MLS listings for the last couple of months just to get some ideas of what is out there and have seen some good deals from time to time but they usually get snatched up quickly. I'm trying to figure out if I should do a HELOC on my primary residence to use as a down payment on a SFH. My home is valued around $190K and I still owe $122K. I only have a total of around $25K-$30K saved and my local credit union does up to 95% of your homes value and its APR as low as 7%.

If you guys were in my shoes knowing what you now know after some experience in investing what would you recommend to get kick started?  Any ideas, stratagies, how to's, tips and tricks, advice, etc would be greatly appreciated.  If I can make it happen a smart way I'd like to get something within the next 6 months.