The best strategy is to buy properties that need fixed up with hard money/HELOC, fix them up, the refi out to pay back your HELOC/hard money.

Investment Info:Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

For context, I'm based in the SF Bay Area in CA and looking into buying my first OOS rental after house hacking locally for 10 years.

We ran out of time which caused us to buy a couple properties we probably shouldn't have at the bottom of our exchange list.The better ones were sold before we could buy them. 

Originally posted by @Andrew Lastivka:Hello, I am a new STR investor and looking for an agent in Central, Ohio and Fort Lauderdale, FL, and surrounding Phoenix, AZ area who specializes in STR's that can assist in buying properties and/or rental arbitrage.

Joint ventures entail utilizing your own money to buy properties with others.

I would suggest you do both of what you suggest - meaning get either a new mortgage (more conservative route) or HELOC on the townhome and use those funds to buy your next investment property.

Investment Info:Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

The current average rent on the new buy is $925.

Investment Info:Condo buy & hold investment.First primary residence (2 bed/ 2 bath condo) located into a desirable part of Southern California.