All Forum Posts by: Thomas Lin

I’m currently planning how to best scale a family real estate portfolio and would really appreciate learning from investors who’ve done this successfully.

Here’s our current situation:

• I personally own two rental properties with mortgages.

• My parent owns two properties that are completely paid off.

• Together, we want to leverage the equity in all four properties (through HELOCs or cash-out refinances) to buy more rentals and build out a larger portfolio.

• Our primary goal is growth — not just holding what we have, but using these assets as a springboard to acquire more doors over time.

• Long-term, I would handle all operations and decision-making, and my parent would receive passive income without having to be involved in day-to-day business.

Where I’d love advice from this community is on structure and timing — especially if entity setup becomes essential for securing financing and scaling efficiently:

• Would you recommend first leveraging equity through personal HELOCs and contributing those funds to an LLC — or is it smarter to set up the entity first and structure financing from there?

• For those of you who’ve built family partnerships, how did you handle ownership splits when one person is the active manager and the other is more passive? Did you use gradual gifting, installment sales, or another strategy to transfer ownership over time?

• What’s been your experience getting HELOCs or investment loans once properties are transferred into an LLC?If banks were hesitant, did you personally guarantee the loan and then document a loan to your LLC with a promissory note?

• At what point in your scaling journey did you find that having a formal entity (LLC, LP, or trust) became non-negotiable for both protection and ease of growing your portfolio?

• Lastly, are there any structures or steps you wish you had set up earlier when scaling family-owned assets into a larger real estate business?

I’d really appreciate hearing lessons learned, strategies that worked (or didn’t), and any advice for those of us looking to grow from small family holdings into a serious, scalable portfolio.

Hi BP family! I am looking to purchase a primary or vacation property. I have about $80k equity in the investment property. 

My questions are: Which method should I use as a down payment to buy the next property? (I plan to put down a 5%-10% conventional loan for the secondary house) 

• 1. Use my cash in the bank as a down payment or
• 2. Cash-out refinance from my current Investment property or
• 3. Home Equity Loan or
• 4. Take HELOC from the investment property?

Please help me figure out which method you would suggest using to purchase the next property, and let me know if there are tax deduction benefits for cash-out refinance vs. HELOC. Appreciate your time and responses.