HELOC to Purchase and Refinance to Cash Out

[Paul Tow]

Hi Everyone - I'm new to BP and the community on here is amazing with a ton of helpful information. 

I do not currently have a lot of excess cash to make downpayments on a home and am looking for alternatives to start investing more in to real estate. The question I have is this: has anyone successfully used a HELOC to purchase a home outright and then later refinance the home to cash out? Would it make more sense to just use the HELOC as a down-payment through traditional financing through a bank?

Any information would be helpful. Trying to gather as many facts as I can to help make my wife more comfortable with this.