Help! How Do I get at my Squirly Equity?

[Troy Brown]

Hello All,

So im a relatively new investor with two rentals and a primary residence. I'd like to leverage some of my equity to purchase my first multi-family unit but am having a hard time getting to it. Hopefully you can help...

After looking at Comps and having a realtor who has lived and worked in my neighborhood for about 11 years walk through the property I estimate my primary residence is worth about 335 or 340k, i owe 224. ~110k in equity

One of my rental properties is worth about 100k and i owe about 60k ~ 40k in equity.

so grand total I "think" i have about 150k in equity.

Unfortunately i havn't been able to find a lender in my state (va) who will do an interest only HELOC at 90%. I am a Marine but NavyFed and USAA just dont have great terms (the former doesnt have interest only at 90% and the latter only goes up to 70% LTV). B/C of this i went with M&T at 85% LTV and got the ball rolling on the HELOC. Unfortunately, the appraisal just came back at 315k instead of 335k and at 85% that only gave me about 40k to work with. I KNOW my house would sell for much more in my neighborhood but dont know what to do about the appraisal.

I havnt pursued any options for pulling any equity out of my rental b/c i didnt think id need to and a HELOC would yeild so little. If I REALLY needed it i guess i could try a cash out refi.

Any recommendations to help me squeeze out any additional equity would be greatly appreciated.

-Logan