Home equity loans versus bank/lender for getting started

[Caroline Landreth]

New here and getting my feet wet in the learning stages of real estate investing. I'd like to get some recommendations from those more seasoned. We have around $200k in home equity and are about to begin the hunt for single family flips/rentals and/or multi unit rentals. Has anyone used equity loan to get started? Should we reserve the equity for EMD and rehab costs while applying for loans through bank/lenders to cover purchase price? Any advice on which kind of equity loan may be best in our case? Thanks!