All Forum Posts by: Nathan Levens

Matt Katsaris Brett Sorenson thanks guys for your input. That gives me a good idea of how other people are approaching the use of HELOC. Ideally, I’m wanting to save for my next purchase but now I’m trying to decide if a good HELOC strategy would help safely speed things up or just add unnecessary risk. I have a decent risk tolerance but for some reason the HELOC seems to make me hesitate.

John Warren thanks for the reply. Both of my properties have their own financing already. While I have quite a bit of equity in the properties, my lender says it’s not enough to make refinancing worth it. That’s why I was thinking of a HELOC strategy. I’ve seen that some banks may provide a HELOC on investment properties but it’s very few of them. I definitely don’t want cross collateralize my properties since I don’t want to lose the whole ship like you said. Maybe my best bet right now is to be patient until I can get my hands on some more capital.

I have a property in the Hotwells area but I don’t have the data you are asking for. This is a great rental area and I’ve never had a problem finding tenants. Screening tenants is vital though to make sure you have people that can pay on time every time. There is some crime that I’ve heard of from my tenants but nothing crazy has happened at my property. I generally feel safe when I’m visiting or working on the property. As you probably know, the homes in Hotwells are fairly old so they can require some work to fix them up and maintain them.

What is your HELOC strategy? I have two rental properties and I’m tempted to find a bank to open an equity line of credit so I can expand my portfolio. However, some investors I talk to say that is too risky. Others say it could be a good strategy but I don’t exactly know how people are using it. For example, are investors paying the HELOC off in a short time frame after using it for a down payment, or paying cash for properties with the credit and refinancing, or something else? I’m excited to learn what other investors are doing. I acquired both of my current properties using hard money and refinancing and now I’m looking for ways to use my equity that I captured.