Pay off mortgage for a large HELOC?

[Steve Vaughan]

We have a relatively small mortgage with a relatively high 15yr pmt.  We are 9 years in. 

We were considering doing cash-out refi's on 3 residential rentals to pull out about $300k to beef up our opportunity fund.  

3 refi's is a pain and closing costs even through a direct lender would be about $2800 each. 

Our rate is 3.375%, pretty good for a 2-family.  We could pay it off with about 50% of our liquid funds. 

The HELOC should get us access to the $300k we were looking for with much less qual pain and only $800-$2000 in closing costs.

Does anyone have experience with no primary mortgage, but an 80% HELOC for potential expansion?

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

@Steve Vaughan I have an unused 80% HELOC on my un mortgaged primary as a 'just in case' thing. It costs nothing if you do not use it.