How to use equity to buy more homes

[Jonathan Freeman]

Hey everyone, I currently own two 2-unit rental properties. I live in one unit. I have owned one of the properties for 8 years and have approximately $90-100k equity in that house. The house I live in, I have owned for almost 4 years and have about $50k of equity. My question would be, how are people adding more properties to there portfolio? Seems that my DTI ratio never qualifies for a big enough loan to buy another feasible property. What is the best way from a investment standpoint to leverage my already owned properties to buy more. I do not do real estate full time, nor do i have many real estate mentors, so i can use some hElp. Thanks for any advice, Jon

[Matthew G.]

@Jonathan Freeman For you investment property you can look at doing a cash out refi and for the property you live in you can look at getting a HELOC. You'll have to run the numbers to see how your DTI looks once you refi, but if you are looking at more rentals, then you should be able to add the income of those units to lower your DTI. If you are looking for something to fix up, then you can use the cash for rehab/down payment and get a HML. If you decide you want to keep the fixer and rent it out, then you can refi out of the HML to a traditional mortgage after you finish rehab.