Stuck, Need help!

[Chad Labrecque]

My name is Chad and I'm looking to grow my real-estate portfolio to be able to leave my 9-5 and build something for my kids. I currently own 2 homes in the Charleston area. One i live in and the other has been a good rental for the past 5 years. I have great equity in both around 300k per home and I'm ready to invest in something else. I guess my main question is what do i do next? This is new territory for me and so i guess I'm nervous, but I'm ready to take the next step. I'm thinking a small multi family complex 4-8 units. I just don't know what the next step would be... lender, agent, form a LLC? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you

[Caleb Brown]

To tap into the equity you can either do a cash out refi, HELOC or 1031 that rental into something else. I would explore the financing routes, talk to lenders/banks. Look at the numbers/cost so you can know that if you do pull the equity out. During that I would also see what deals are out there, network locally. The market is different than 5 years ago. You want to be careful not to overleverage. I would look at 2-4 units. Going to a 4-8 unit would be a big jump, nothing wrong with taking a slower path.