Looking for HELOC Advice

[Erica Calella]

Hi all,

I recently purchased an investment property as part of a 1031 exchange in Western North Carolina. The house needs repairs and various upgrading that I will need to address. It's also a STR so getting these improvements taken care of is really important to me. My lender packaged and sold my mortgage, and when I called the new servicer to inquire about a HELOC/ Home Equity Loan they told me I wasn't eligible because of my short ownership duration.

I am planning to pay for most of the improvements with cash I have on hand from my W2 job, but I want to get something set up in case of an emergency repair/ use towards other investment opportunities. I currently have about $180K of equity in the home, but would only look to set up a line of credit of ~$30-$50K. Any suggestions here? Are Rocket Mortgage and Lending Tree reputable and if I were to go that route, what would the process look like?