Using HELOC on primary residence HELOC for STR

[Maggie Jiles]

My husband and I want to purchase our first short-term rental property. We have enough to cover the down payment and closing costs, but not reserves. My plan is to get a HELOC on our primary residence to use as needed for reserves, and save all profits from the STR until we have sufficient reserves. Our lender has pre-qualified us for a second home loan. At this point, can we get the HELOC now and still be able to close on the second home loan? If we do it the other way around, I don't want to take the chance of not getting approved for the HELOC after closing on the second home loan. We have about 75K of equity in our home. I have no experience with HELOCs, so I don't know how difficult they are to obtain. Any advice is appreciated!