Should I use equity from my home for downpayment on first rental?

[Amber Tippett]

I'm obviously a super newbie, just thinking through options to get started. My husband and I have a ton of equity in our home that could be a line of credit towards upgrades, however wondering about putting it towards a first investment property instead. Is that a terrible idea?? 

[David Steinbok]

So basically what I did was refinance my personal house and I didn't know any better so I bought a single family home in a smaller town for cash.i didn't qualify for a second mortgage .   I built a legal duplex and rented it out. With the  left over money, I put a 20% dp on house number 3. I learned not to buy houses with cash from other investors I had recently met. Then with my job and 2 rented rental properties, I refinanced house number 2 and took 80% of the value out. Then I used that money for deposits to buy 2 condos and another house. And I just repeated that over and over. But as I met other more experienced investors, I sold my condos to buy cash flowing houses. 

I have done things differently than others here. Made a few mistakes along the way.  I was able to quit my job after a few houses. I never took the cash flow from my rentals, I instead use the money to pay for my personal house and all its expences so I live for free. I also had to quit my job because I bought 3 houses one summer and I couldn't renovate them and have a day job at the same time. It was alot of work, but as every year goes by it gets easier.