HELOC's become really scary in market crashes.

Now I am ready to invest and of course, I'm late to the party :(Everywhere I turn, I find cap rates below 5%, and I don't really want to go into risky C or C- properties or Rust Belt markets for my first investment, as I might find myself squeezed if the market crashes, assuming we are closer to the end of the up cycle now than we were 5 years back.So what is your advice, seasoned investors?

I missed out on the crash entirely...but then, I missed the Bitcoin craze too.

It was at this level in 2006 and came crashing down a few years later.

My $30,000 down made $8800 not a home run, but the place is worth an easy $150k now, that’s an extra $20k (15% in one year, good thing I didn’t listen to people last year saying I couldn’t invest in Vegas, or the next crash is/was coming), if I wasn’t lazy I could refi and get my money back out but houses here are really cheap and I usually only buy 1 a year.

I also am nervous about the Seattle market and what the government is doing there, not to mention the pending crash everyone seem to be thinking will happen within the next 2-3 years.

Going deeper, there is a ton of data backing the fact that the SF real estate market performs quite strong, historically speaking.The 2008 crash was quite abnormal in is scale, and was greater than any other downtown going back to the Great Depression. 

@Kin LeungMan...this questions comes up all the time on BP - I want to get into MF but maybe I'll wait till the market corrects or crashes. 

The purpose of this forum will be to give practical solutions vs pulling the "crash n crush" alarm like a previous thread.

I also started as an investor in 2000, and only went to law school after the crash.