Better way to structure BRRRs??

[Judah Hoover]

I am personal friends with Matt Faircloth and could have called him, but thought I might get better responses here.
In his famed book "Raising Private Capital", on pages 77 and 78, Matt tells of how he used to buy properties with HELOCs then refi them. But after the crash in 2008 he was stuck with 2 mortgages on some properties. He said with a mentor he could have structured these deals better and he wouldn't have had years of break even cashflow.
Using HELOCs seems to be a very accepted part of the BRRR strategy many use and I believe still advocated by Matt, so what lessons should have been learned? and how should have the deals been structured? What other ways could have have gotten to a positive cashflow solution sooner than waiting for the market to recover?