All Forum Posts by: Michael Klick

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

HELOCs are fine, but keep in mind that you really only want to use 50 percent of less (each) of your available equity just so you aren't creating a problem that you can't solve later if the value of your personal residences fluctuates.

If you both have W2 jobs though, have you looked into getting qualified together and just getting a loan, 10 percent down each? That would be a separate mortgage and not what amounts to a second loan on your personal residence, which if you have spouses, they might not be that into.

I know it has been a while since you posted this and while my partner and I have both established HELOCs, I have been thinking again about what you said here. With the HELOCs now set, we are curious as the best way to approach getting pre-approved for our first property while we search for the right fit. The plan was to utilize the HELOC as the down payment then getting a conventional loan to cover the remaining 80%. If I may, in your experience, is this difficult to accomplish with a HELOC already established? We are learning as we go here and I am curious on the approach others have used when going for their first property after getting their HELOC set up alongside an LLC and so forth. Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated.

I just wanted to say thank you all for the responses and insight!

A partner and I, both of who work a full time job, are looking to get into real estate investing. Focusing on a long term rental for our first property, we are just beginning our search. I have listened to plenty of podcasts and ready a number of books, but only a few mention purchasing yours first rental with a HELOC. Would anyone be able to offer general advice to this approach? We do have cash available, but with a large amount of equity in our primary residence, we wanted to avoid tapping into that cash to instead take advantage of our equity. Any insight from those who have done this or those that suggest we don't take this approach would be appreciated.