Any good strategies for using equity in existing home for investing?

[Robin Schumacher]

My wife and I have kicked around downsizing from our rather large paid off home to something smaller and then using some of the cash received after we pay off the smaller home for RE investing. I wondered, though, if there were any good strategies outside of a home equity loan for just pulling a very small portion of our equity out and investing in 1-2 properties? Any smart ways of doing this or is the idea just plain bad?