I am looking into purchasing a second (vacation) home and would love to hear your thought on the pros and cons of going a conventional 30-year second mortgage vs. using a HELOC or Home Equity Loan on my Primary Residence to purchase the second home outright. 

The purchaser of the property, sometimes the foreclosure rescue artist, is now free to refinance the property or to sell the property to another party.

Purchase price: $115,000 Cash invested: $42,000 Sale price: $168,000 Unfortunately, we bought this property as a buy and hold property, and our research led us to believe that this neighborhood was up and coming not in a bad area of Jacksonville.

We've essentially ruled out investing in our local community because we can't seem to find a good deal (we live about 1.5 hours north of NYC, so purchase prices are very high), so we are considering (1) investing out of state; or (2) investing in some northern NY localities (Syracuse, Albany, Rochester, etc.). 

When I am looking for a new investment property and am strapped for cash, I typically look off-market and try and find something that can a seller is looking to sell that needs minimal repairs to be rent ready and the purchase price is 80% of the ARV this way I can use private money to buy in cash, do the repairs needed then refinance on a DSCR loan and pay off the private money loan. 

Quote from @Cody Lewis: My wife and I recently purchased our first STR.

Plan is to purchase a couple homes over the next year.

Soon I'll be purchasing my first ever investment property (Virginia) (MFH) and I honestly feel like I made a mistake.

I did have an inspection before purchase, and to be honest the inspectors never turned on the furnace to check if it was working, and I moved forward anyway.

Purchase price: $250,000 Cash invested: $50,000 Primary house hack.