Advise on how to grow my real estate portfolio.

[Luis Castellannos]

Hello BiggerPoeckets, my name is Luis Castellanos from Chicago, IL and I'm new to BP. In 2014, while transitioning from the military, I decided it was a great idea (without any knowledge and/or experience in real estate) to use VA loan benefits to purchase a multi-family property, which I house hacked (live in one unit, collect rent on the other two units). Fast-forward to today, it has proven to be the best decision I've made in my life. The neighborhood where I bought has become one of the trendiest in the city, and I've built a healthy equity on my property. I would like to ask fellow BP members for ideas on how to approach my next move. Some of the things I've thought about are:

• 1)Sell my current property, collect the equity, use VA loan benefits to purchase another similar deal, and use the equity to finance more deals.
• 2)Cash-out refinance and use the money to finance another deal and keep current property.
• 3)Take out a HELOC to finance my next deal and keep current property.

I’m leaning towards number one, however, I open to other ideas. Thank you all in advance, I love BP and I appreciate everyone’s help. 

[Zack Karp]

@Luis Castellannos #2 all day. Get out of the VA loan and into a Conventional loan so that you can use your VA benefit to purchase the next one. Of course this is only assuming the numbers work with the rental income vs expenses.

Best of luck and TYFYS!