HELOC and HEL on Primary and Conventional

[Ariela Perez]

Hi everyone!

I am new to investing and to BP! So happy I have found this forum!

I have a good amount of equity on my primary home and currently applying for a HELOC. I have a high interest rate (4.375%) on my 30 year but I was able to pay a large amount of it down already and have about 10 more yrs to go.

The bank I am currently applying a HELOC with also recommended me to take a home equity loan for a 10 year term at a much lower rate of 2.9 % to pay off my current mortgage loan. So I am pursing that as well.

While all of this is in the process, there are a few investment properties that have peaked my interest. It may be weeks to almost a month before I get approval for the HELOC. I was able to obtain a preapproval for convention on any investment property using a mortgage broker at 4% but was wondering if it would be bad to try applying for a few more preapprovals with different banks to see who can give me the best rate for conventional? Would this be a problem for my credit being that there would be to many hard pulls or too much action going on that may affect my heloc application and vice versa?

Also: once i get approval for HELOC- for anyone whos used this- do you all use the heloc for downpayments? or buy all cash and refinance out of it?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am new and trying to learn what the best route is to hit the ground running! I am ready to start now :-)

Thanks in advance,

Ariela