I got approved for a HELOAN on my primary property but not sure if I should take the loan to just use as “leverage/reserves” to show the HML and get funded.

Many banks securitize their loans (bundle them together) and sell the loans to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, while continuing to service the loans, that is collect your payment.

If you are interested in becoming a landlord or buy and hold investor a great way to get started is by house hacking a multifamily with an owner occupied loan. 

If you used a loan to rehab your property and find yourself in a difficult position, doing a straight refi (just paying off the old mortgage) will be easier than trying to pay off the original loan and take additional cash out.

That would minimize and maybe eliminate the need for a loan for those properties.

Hey Account Closed - I highly suggest  using a renovation loan and house hacking a multi-family if that is possible with your current life circumstances.The 203k and homestyle renovation loans are just amazing products and drastically help you reduce your risk, in my opinion, because you are able to leverage the cost of the entire renovation with such a low down payment loan.We work with a lot of clients who use these products in Chicago, and no matter what, in the long term, they gain great equity.If you aren't able to house hack - the process is essentially the same, but just with more money down with hard money or conventional construction loan.

Based on our 1031 and commercial loan, we are trying to figure out how to separate out some of the duds.

When Trying to qualify for a traditional loan, lenders usually price your purchasing power at 3x your net income.

Example: If you take out a loan for 7% you would want to make more than 7% to make it worth it, and probably significantly more.

Unless it’s specified by your loan type or lender, you don’t have to.