Pre approval or HELOC first?

[Kristen Silva]

Hello,

I am new to the Bigger Pockets community. My husband and I are looking into purchasing our first investment property. We have a primary residence that has about 350k of equity. Our current rate is 3% so a cash out refinance isn't an appealing option to us. We are looking into the possibility of getting a HELOC to serve as a down payment on a small multi family unit (duplex-quadruplex), putting some $ into it to fix it up, and doing a refinance on the property to pay off the HELOC. My question is, should we go through the process of getting pre approved before pursuing the HELOC or after? Will the HELOC affect the amount we can be preapproved for?

Any additional insight or advice for those of you who have done this before is always appreciated.

Thank you