Expanding real estate portfolio after NYC purchase

[Phil Li]

Hi everyone. I am seeking advice on how to expand my real estate portfolio. I purchased a house in South Brooklyn NY last year with my wife and I am looking to purchase more property for rental. We put about 40% down on a 1.1mil 2 family house and we are looking into buying rental properties in other states. We're currently renting out the other unit for the house we live in which covers about half of the mortgage payments every month, allowing us to save a significant amount of money from our full time jobs. 

We currently have 70k in cash saved and ready to invest. However we would like to use as little of our own cash as possible for this venture. We looked into the BRRRR model and it seems feasible if we get a HELOC given the large amount of equity we have in our current home. However, neither of us are experienced in the BRRRR strategy and we're not sure how to go about finding off-market fixer uppers in other states (NJ, PA, CT). If anybody has advice on a first time BRRRR given our current situation it would be greatly appreciated!