165k HELOC, Now What?

[Ashley Sanchez]

Hi there! 

A little background on us; hubs is a FF/Medic. I'm a SAHM. Net income last year was 119,000. Trying to get another income stream! We are in the process of HELOC on our primary residence, pulling out about 165k. We are approved but still waiting on appraisal results😅.

In the meantime we are trying to decide the best strategy. My husband really wants to buy a property in the harsher part of town, but where I am located, even the roughest of homes are going for about 200k-230k. Not sure how we'd make that work especially if it needs repairs. He wants to buy, wait a year, mortgage the property and pay off the HELOC, rinse and repeat.

Another option is using the 165k as a down payment on something nicer (like potentially a beach condo or cabin in Georgia), and do short term rentals, but not sure how we'd be approved for a second mortgage if we already have one and a maxed out HELOC.

I’d love to hear some advice or ideas! We are very new to this and we are excited for possibilities, but I’m afraid we can find ourselves frozen in indecision.