Entry level investor

[Thomas Paynter]

My wife and are in a financial position to start "small" in investing. She is a bookkeeper for small businesses and is taking special training on keeping books for REI. We're reading all the books suggested. (Please drop your favorites.)

The plan is to join some local REI mastermind groups. We have TONS of contacts as far as realtors, GCs, tradesman, etc so we feel ahead of the game in that aspect.

Our biggest goal is to stay in the black (or get back to the black ASAP) before building a rental portfolio. That said, we know nothing goes as planned.

Advice? What would you do with $100k HELOC to break into the industry? (To be clear, this isn't our entire available equity. This is leaving plenty of cushion). We want to be able to make money, do some home upgrades, and create lasting wealth, over the next 30 years. (We are early 40s.)

[Matthew Irish-Jones]

Quote from @Thomas Paynter:

My wife and are in a financial position to start "small" in investing. She is a bookkeeper for small businesses and is taking special training on keeping books for REI. We're reading all the books suggested. (Please drop your favorites.)

The plan is to join some local REI mastermind groups. We have TONS of contacts as far as realtors, GCs, tradesman, etc so we feel ahead of the game in that aspect.

Our biggest goal is to stay in the black (or get back to the black ASAP) before building a rental portfolio. That said, we know nothing goes as planned.

Advice? What would you do with $100k HELOC to break into the industry? (To be clear, this isn't our entire available equity. This is leaving plenty of cushion). We want to be able to make money, do some home upgrades, and create lasting wealth, over the next 30 years. (We are early 40s.)

100K HELOC is going to be tough to deal with. You are going to be 100% leveraged if your plan is to use the HELOC as a down payment.

I would suggest buying a property that has a value add opportunity from the jump. Use the HELOC to upgrade the property, then refinance. The HELOC is an ok took for you to use as your own personal construction loan, other than that it doesn't have a ton of value as a down payment method. If you have your 25% down payment through a HELOC + a loan on the property, you will not stay in the black no matter what every agent desperate for a sale on here tell you :)