Hello Bigger Pockets family,Here is my current situation, my current credit is in the mid's 500's , I have income close to the $90's / year, but no money down.I will have access to maybe $7k by next year.

I have not always been the best when it comes to protecting my credit.

We use MINT.com, which is nice.According to MINT, what is largely dragging our credit score down (it's a 758) is credit utilization.That's a few credit cards here and there but predominantly our HELOC is 60% utilized and bringing up our total credit utilization up over 40%.I'm under the understanding that many people use HELOCs as a great way to pull out equity from their primary residence.I don't understand why one would be penalized from having a stronger equity position in their primary residence?

So what I've learned is that my bank is a joke, a local credit union called Amplify Credit Union.

I think you’re eligible for some federal tax credits for the upgrades. 

People love that the $3000 furnace is rolled into their mortgage payment - not something they have to put on their credit card 6 months after they buy... just my strategy. 

If your W2 income is high enough you can get a personal line of credit through a bank... here's a post I wrote on that a while ago

One last thing in terms of cost...MA does offer up to a $1500 tax credit per unit for work done towards deleading, so you'd be eligible for up to 3k in MA tax credits. 

Your 23 on your own, you've got little (couple thousand) to no money, no credit, no experience, just time and opportunity.

Learning something new takes time, I don’t have capital or good credit, so I have been putting my focus on wholesaling.