Another HELOC Question - Recommendations for a Newcomer

[Chad Choquette]

Hey everyone, thanks for having me here.

I've enjoyed the Bigger Pockets Podcast for a while now and I feel it's time to actually start doing more in real estate.

My background:

Day job - web developer

Previous Real Estate Experience: father was a home builder and realtor, I was a realtor for 1 year (didn't get any sales so had to get a regular job), wife and  I have owned 2 houses that we fixed up while living in for 2 years and made good profit, flipped one house while we lived in an apartment. On our fourth house but not planning on selling soon.

My Question:

I understand a lot of people use HELOCs in the BRRR strategy. We have used a good portion of our HELOC to buy the house we are in and fix it up (we got a small loan to buy the house and because of COVID they never visually appraised the house and just gave us the HELOC and paid the loan with it).

I've been using the stimulus money to pay down on the HELOC and am trying to throw extra cash at it.

Total HELOC: $105k

Currently Used: $87k

Available: $18k

If more stimulus comes through I expect to throw another $6-8k at it.

My question is, do I need to pay this completely off before I should borrow against my house to get an investment property? Or can I do it will some debt still in the HELOC? Or is there a way that I could not use the HELOC and get straight into it?

We have about $5-8k cash on hand and our budget can afford increases in our HELOC monthly payment.

I do a lot of my own house work and have great contractors that give me deals for the areas I don't personally work in.

I figure if we are going to have to pay down the debt completely it would take me a few years with my current job and side hustles. Was hoping to get into real estate more and sooner!

Thanks for any advice or stories you have to share!