Advice Needed - Selling vs. HELOC to buy additional investment

[Abigail Bennett]

Hi Bigger Pockets Crew, 

I need some advice on how to make my next move. I own a 2 door property that has about 200-250k in equity. I owe about $200k and it is worth between $400 and $475k. I really want to buy another property and have been planning to sell it and 1031, BUT now I'm thinking maybe there is a way I can keep this property as a rental and buy another one. I am looking into a HELOC to see if I could get a large chunk of equity on my property to put down on my next investment.

I have a potential partner who is selling 2 properties and we were going to do a 1031 together. My initial research shows that I could use funds from a HELOC to go in on a 1031 with my partner.

Has anyone used a HELOC for a 1031? And also, does anyone have advice on using a HELOC to buy a new property versus selling my property outright?

Any tips or advice is appreciated. My long term goal is to have a portfolio of many rental properties so that is why I'd like to be able to keep this one AND buy another one. 

Thank you!!