HELOC - how to make numbers work with a second mortgage

[Stephen Brieloff]

I have owned my primary residence for over 2 years now and have been toying with the idea of a HELOC in order to leverage those funds to invest in another real estate opportunity. The challenge I am having is that the HELOC is an additional mortgage. So if I use those funds to invest in another real estate opportunity, I then have a mortgage on my primary, plus the mortgage on the new property, plus the HELOC payment. This has been a challenging mental block for me to overcome. Of course, if the numbers are great and the rental income you get is greater than all expenses, including the HELOC payment, everything works out. But I'm having a hard time finding opportunities like this.

How have others overcome this challenge?