I have substantial equity tied up in two investment properties (a 5 family commercial property and a 3 family residential property) which I would like to access through HELOC products.  

Since the property taxes increase substantially, and real estate being so expensive it is really to start real estate investment locally.

Since the property taxes increase substantially, and real estate being so expensive it is really to start real estate investment locally.

At 80% LTV it can take a substantial bite out of your returns.

The sell now price is substantially higher than the capital account value we would start out with but would allow us to get into multifamily. 

A couple months ago I was looking at a triplex that came up for sale in a close suburb,   long story short despite suffering from long term poor management, needing substantial exterior repairs, and having damage and 2 vacant and gutted units left over from tenants-from-hell it ended up selling to somebody else for 30% over asking,  needing another 20% of the asking price (at least) in repairs.  

@Jack Greener if you’re switching then yeah it won’t really matter what you do now, just save as much as you can.I’m very realistic and blunt, and I’m a believer in taking the path of least resistance, which is what I describe above.  

The market rent has increased over $100/month but we raise our continued tenants less than that but the value adds have had rent increase so substantial that overall our rents are up over $100/month per unit for each of the last 5 years. 

Merely substantially differing applicants when it comes to their "stats".  

I would never feel comfortable unless I had substantial reserves.