Newb Financing with home equity

[Ben E.]

Greetings BP members,

I'm a newbie to the community and want to gather some opinions on my financing strategy.

I currently have 2 properties, my personal home and a rental townhouse. Both are paid off.

I'm now in a position that I have some funds to invest in another property. I'm looking into small multi-family properties. There is a potential 4-plex available near me.

I'll need to borrow around $150k to acquire this property. I have great credit and enough to put 20% down, so a traditional loan should not be a problem. However, I would like to own the property in an LLC, so I'm considering trying to refinance my personal home or use an HELOC and pull the $150k from there. Then I should be able to purchase the property with those funds and still be able to hold the new rental in an LLC.

With 2 properties and a 3rd in consideration; I think it is important to try and build in some asset protection. I'm curious to know if I am likely to run into roadblocks or disadvantages with this strategy.

Thanks for any help!

- Ben