Thinking of opening up a HELOC, anything I should consider?

[Robert M.]

I want to get started flipping houses and since I don't have the capital to purchase a house yet I was informed that I could potentially open up a HELOC against my house to provide me the necessary capital to finance a flip.

I went to my credit union and inquired how much I can borrow. They told me they would let me borrow up to 60k taking into consideration my current house value. This doesn't sound right so I went to another bank and they wanted to run my credit again and setup an appointment to talk to an underwriter to figure out how much my HELOC would be. I decided against running my credit to much and instead ask here and find out if there is anything I should know before opening a HELOC. Are all banks going to give me pretty much the same credit line amount and interest rate?

Current mortgage: 225k

Current home value: 360k