Financing after a bankruptcy and foreclosure

[Bily Elliott]

I will try to make a long story short. I filed bankruptcy in 2011, let the house, car and credit cards go away. There was a sheriff sale September of 2011, I started looking to buy another house last year and to my surprise, it does not matter when the house was foreclosed on, it mattered when the government paid back the lender (I think that is how it was explained to me anyway), so that date did not start until April of 2013. I ended up selling a piece of property that I owned for a good chunk of money and paid cash for a $175,000 house (because I could not get any financing for 3 years I believe from the April 2013 date). So right now I have zero debt (actually about 10K on my wives car) and I own my house free and clear, I own a SFR worth about 30K and I have 80K in my 401K.

I planned on just saving my money and buying another property every few years, BUT if I decided I wanted to jump into financing some stuff what are my options? The only way I can borrow from my 401K is to purchase a primary residence (also other hardships, medical, school and such), I cant borrow to invest. Should I look at a home equity loan, a HELOC, I cant use the 401K money as a down because I don't think I can get conventional financing for another few years (unless I am wrong, Ive been wring a time or two).