Cash out refi or HELOC?

[Angie Briggs]

Hello all,

I would like to thank everyone in advance that responds. We are looking for options/opinions on where we should go from here.

My husband and I just jumped into real estate investing almost two years ago purchasing our first 3 family that has done pretty well and we would like to acquire another one eventually. We are looking into either doing a cash out refi on the 3 family for down payment on another one or taking equity or HELOC on our primary residence to buy another. How much debt is too much to take on to further your investments? We would be borrowing 100% of the down payment. I feel like if we wait to pay off existing mortgages or to save the down payment cash we may not buy for more than a decade if ever. We have roughly $225k equity in our primary residence and roughly $200k equity in our 3 family. We do owe quite a bit on both mortgages still so no where near paying off. We both work full time W2 jobs and have another $110k in retirement accounts for back up and are just looking for extra RE on the side to help with retirement and children's futures. We are in Mass and because of that RE is quite pricey which makes for larger down payments. We certainly don't want to drown in debt and put ourselves in a risky position, however, we don't want to miss out because of fear. Does anyone have any insight or advice?