I am in process of buying my second home which I plan to move into.We first bought our first house in 2012 for low 200's in suburbs of Nashville TN.Now the house is worth 440k.Balance on mortgage is 162k.The second home will be a new build in 500k range.My husband makes about 85k per yr.I want to start off investing in reral estate to have a cushion for kids education and retirement.At this point,our lender mentioned that hubby will be approved for  500k mortgage at 3.125% with 10% down.Provided the present home also rents out and we have a lease of 1 yr signed.We have all this set up.He also mentioned we can look into heloc.How do we do that.I have no idea about it and dont want to do it ignorance.I also plan to buy another home for investment asap after we move into second home.I am a SAHM and will be for quite some time.Any advice?

in the scenario presented that 26k is really far less than that given the refi cost of title escrow lender fees  etc etc.. pretty expensive to refi with such a tiny amount of equity from that property.  

Timeline and guidelines are tight but to be able to defer taxes is worth the risk.

its likely a deed restriction, so it was present prior to construction, no grandfathering 

However, don't buy a condo simply because it's the only thing you can afford at this present moment in time.  

I am in process of buying my second home which I plan to move into.We first bought our first house in 2012 for low 200's in suburbs of Nashville TN.Now the house is worth 440k.Balance on mortgage is 162k.The second home will be a new build in 500k range.My husband makes about 85k per yr.I want to start off investing in reral estate to have a cushion for kids education and retirement.At this point,our lender mentioned that hubby will be approved for 500k mortgage at 3.125% with 10% down.Provided the present home also rents out and we have a lease of 1 yr signed.We have all this set up.He also mentioned we can look into heloc.How do we do that.I have no idea about it and dont want to do it ignorance.I also plan to buy another home for investment asap after we move into second home.I am a SAHM and will be for quite some time.Any advice?

I presented it to one of my clients and said it would be around $700k. 

Neither solution is particularly desirable, as both have undesirable income tax consequences.The sale of partnership interests are specifically excluded from tax-deferred exchange treatment under the rationale that a partnership interest is a personal property interest and not a real property interest, so more complicated structural solutions are required when partners desire to go their separate ways and some or all of the partners wish to structure and complete a 1031 Exchange."...

My question is are there things you guys do to allow a handyman to access a property without a tenant present?

This isn't directly related to 121, but bears on it.From the Gates conclusion: "If a taxpayer sold some part of the underlying land but not the dwelling that the taxpayer used as a principal residence, the taxpayer could not defer the recognition of gain on the sale because the taxpayer did not sell his or her principal residence. . .If petitioners had sold their old home instead of demolishing it, they would have qualified for the section 121 exclusion.