Newbie in San Jose - considering leveraging equity

Hi Bigger Pockets Community, 

I'm Elizabeth from San Jose - married with two school-age kids. Totally non-original story...my husband and I both work full time (I'm a teacher) and we're interested in real estate investing. We're not really diversified with most of our investments tied up in retirement plans. Our primary residence has a considerable about of equity (Apparently that's true because I completed a HELOC pre-qual form online and immediately after I hit 'submit' my phone was ringing with loan offers and it hasn't stopped for the last 12 hours). We also have some cash available and we'd considering using some as a down payment or towards another form of real estate investment. I'm in the information gathering stage and considering multiple forms of investing - income rentals, REITs, and even crowdfunding (like Fundrise). Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed, excited, nervous, and impatient. That probably sounds familiar to most of you. I'm looking forward to meeting and learning from this community. Thanks for reading.

Elizabeth