Old/New member looking to up my portfolio

[Diego Mishler]

Hi everyone, I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Diego and even though I've been a member of Bigger Pockets for a few years, I haven't been really active.  Earlier this year, we purchased our first investment property.  From our purchase perspective, we made a really good deal.  We purchased the property for 260k and the market/appraisal value came in at 300k.  We ended up putting 80k down so the mortgage is 177k.  This actually would be perfect for a flip, but the mortgage company we worked with added a clause on the mortgage where we would get hit with a 5% penalty if we were to sell the property within 2 years of purchase, have you guys had anything like that before?

The main issue we have, is that we didn't properly analyze the rental market for the area, if we had, we probably wouldn't have bought the place to begin with, even though we had a really good purchase deal.  The cash flow will probably break even because we have a high cost for HoA which eats into our profits.  I'm also working with a management company to help because I actually don't live too close to the property, so they would charge me 8% fee on a monthly basis.  As of right now though, we haven't found a tenant, but I've since evaluated the area and I think I have the rental price just right, if I have to, I can tweak it maybe another $100.

I want to further invest in more investment properties, and one strategy that intrigues me is the HELOC approach. I'm a little scared about this approach, because the next property I invest in, has to generate enough cash flow to cover the property's operating cost plus the HELOC. Any tips on that front would greatly be appreciated.

To end, I'm really happy to be more involved in this community and I'm hoping to learn a lot more from the business.