Hi, BP,

My husband and I somewhat fell into real estate investing when I was gifted my childhood home from my elderly father. We were living in our town home and quickly realized the benefit of moving into my childhood home, refurbishing many aspects of it while earning some great equity. I need to add that we also own a 2 BR lakeshore cabin in WI. Anyway, we decided to try our hand in becoming a landlord and renting our townhouse. Our refurbishing has been a ton of work but have accomplished much (new plumbing, new electrical, remodeled main bath and added a second bath and BR in lower level, new concrete drive, new decks, etc.). We just signed a one year lease with our town home tenants and we want to grow our portfolio of rental properties to assist in our retirement years. Our question that we get stuck on is, should we sell our cabin and take advantage of our $100k equity and use those funds to purchase two additional townhomes (applying $50k down payment for each), or use the proceeds and put all $100k on one property?  We are truly blessed to be in a positive equity situation but need some guidance.  Thanks

Kind of in a similar situation I own a home in shakopee and it is paid for. I am renting it for $1500 a month. I want buy more rentals but I would rather save up for the down payments than take a loan against this home. My son says now is the time to take equity out with the low rates. For me I am going to save up the money or find some OPM sources. For you I have been saying if it don't make me money I am not going to buy it. I have another commercial property that isn't rented right now and it won't sell either but its almost paid for so not too much bleeding going on there. thanks JH

@Laurie Koppes

Welcome to Bigger Pockets. BP is full of resources. You will find resources here from blogs to pod casts and forums. You can also send messages to members which is my favorite part of the website.

I would suggest take out a line of credit or HELOC to grow your real estate business faster and to its full potential. You can get those loans for prime + 1% (4.25%) today. Take your cheap money and reinvest in more real estate. Your other property should still cash flow even with a 80% LTV 2nd loan. You could easily buy another 2 properties with that.