Increasing appraisal for a HELOC

[Grant Smith]

So I have been living in my primary residence for about 6 months now and have been trying to find creative ways to increase my cash for more investments without having much of a track record in the investing world. I purchased the home well under market value and have done some updates to it in hopes to increase the value even more. 

I have been looking into HELOC's and cash-out refi as a way to take money out of the equity and use it to reinvest into another home. I think im pretty set on going the HELOC route but I have come to another debate within myself on what i should do.

Both strategies will require an appraisal to be done on the property and I am really trying to maximize my appraisal price so I will have access to the highest amount of money the bank will lend. 

That being said, two things that ive wanted to do regardless before i sell or rent the house out is put tile in the bathroom and landscape around the home. I had plans to do this later down the road but if im gonna need an appraisal, is it worth doing it before to increase the amount it will be appraised for or would doing this not really have any bearing on what it will appraise? 

Any feedback or ideas on this or any other ways i could increase my chances would be very appreciated!