If you had $80,000 in a heloc, what would you do?

Question

I bought my parents house from them a while back for well under what it appraised for.  The result, I now have a Heloc for a little over $80K.  Since buying their place (they still live there) my wife and I have acquired a couple duplexes (we weren't married at the time so we both took advantage of FHA loans).  We live in one and the other is rented and cash flows well enough.

Here is where I'm struggling.  I want a modest rental property portfolio as a retirement vessel for us as well as cashflow to insulate us from an economic downturn (job loss/injury/etc), and I'm wrestling with myself trying to find the best way to utilize this 80 grand I have access to.  What would you do?  What strategy best suits you?

A little about me, Im a Realtor and I have a high paying W2 job at which I'm currently working a ton of overtime to pay down debt.  I have a partner who's willing to work with me (he's a broker who'm I have my license under), we've done 1 flip together at which we took a minimal loss.  He's since gone gangbusters and is tearing it up in our area of Tampa Bay/Clearwater flipping homes, though I don't know if that suits me as I already have a full time job that I work a lot at and don't want another.

So what would you do if you had access to 80K?  Maybe I can learn something from yall's perspective.

Thanks all, and happy hunting

Zack Wills · Answer

@Teri S.yea good point.  The Refi option occurred to me too, and I kind of get the basics of the BRRRR strategy (im sure theres a ton of forums on it), but I still need to learn the finer points of it.  Mainly what it actually means to refinance a loan, for instance I just learned you can only take out up to 70-80% of the ARV.

Caleb Heimsoth · Answer

@Zack Wills. Take your entire 80k and dump it into a forex trading account.  Then leverage it again 10X using margin trades. What could go wrong?? (Don’t do this lol kidding).

I would buy small multifamily until had 8-10 units and then if you find a good deal, maybe some single family.  I would also recommend using your heloc as short term money.  Meaning, acquire something in cash and then refinance and pay off heloc.  Helocs are callable which means even if you make your payment, the bank can still call the full balance due.  Read the fine print.

Zack Wills · Answer

@Matt Fore I like duplexes, my plan initially was to just keep buying those until I had 10 or so, maybe at the pace of 1 per year until im 40.  Then work aggressively to pay them off by the time I'm 55 and give myself the option to retire if i wanted to.  Do you like only multi family buy and holds or do you have a few single family homes as well?  Im trying to decide if 2 single family homes is the same as 1 duplex in terms of vacancies and expenses.  I still figure its best to have one loan and 2 doors rather than one loan and one door.

Teri Feeney Styers · Answer

@Zack Wills you might use the HELOC to aid in the acquisition of a long term hold - but I wouldn't make the use "long term". A HELOC can have too many variables (I use one for flips). I'd use it to buy or rehab with an exit strategy to longer term financing. If that doesn't work for you then think about a straight refi on the property that has the HELOC and just capture the cash that way.

Matt Fore · Answer

Buy and hold long term multi family like you started with duplexes.  That's my strategy.

Zack Wills · Answer

I should note that ideally I would like to avoid utilizing most of my personal funds (Im willing to utilize some).  The idea here is to most efficiently utilized the Heloc while using my w2 funds to continue to pay down debt and build savings.