How do you balance these strategies, and what signals do you look for in deciding to hold or flip a property?

If you are planning to pay the HELOC back after each flip but then draw it right back out to buy the next one, you will have a loan balance most of the time and a refinance might work just as well for you.

When you are on the commercial side of the bank, and borrowing on the bank's balance sheet, they have a lot more flexibility to how they handle loans.  

Our loan balance is $640k (rolled a HELOC that we used to buy a triplex into the primary mortgage back in 2020) on a 30-year fixed @ 2.85%.

If you use a HELOC I would do a project where you can pay it back(BRRR, Flip) and not keep a balance. 

Maybe offer to pay a portion of the balance contingent on completing the work or signing a waiver to avoid the lien.

Balance (compromise) and communication are key in situations like this.

Striking the right balance between enforcement and maintaining an inclusive, education-focused community will be crucial to its success.

The new property has to perform enough better than what you have to pay the higher interest rate on the higher balance, AND ADDITIONAL profit just to payback the $65k you lost selling.

Thank you for your insights, I was a bit vague, honestly, I've been looking at houses since I graduated college about a year and a half ago but life was in the way, had student debt to focus on, moved to a new state with no family or friends and had to build some form of social/work foundation in my eyes when I moved from NYC to VA to make sure everything that I decide I go into the life I am balanced such that I can focus on what I want with all of my energy.I am not moving on from looking at properties, over the time I've been looking at houses I have saved, I have researched, I have made connections with real estate agents in my area, I even studied for the real estate agent test but ended up not taking it for other reasons.