Accessing equity for a newbie.

[Krista White]

Hello everyone,

Im a newbie from Atlantic Canada. 

Im incredibly interested in getting in to real estate, both rehabs and rentals, but I don't really know where to start. 

I have somewhere around $100,000 in equity in my current home but imagine accessing that may be difficult due to a pretty sucky credit score (all in the past but still effecting my score). Maybe it wouldn't be, I don't know. Is refinancing to access equity as "difficult" as getting the mortgage in the first place?

What would you more experience investors recommend? Should I be looking at something different than refinancing?

Thanks everyone