Quick Advice for Financing Strategy- HELOC and mortgages

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Hi everyone!

Just looking for some advice: My personal residence is paid off and worth the equivalent of 4-5 prospective rental properties.

 I do not have any investment property mortgages (buy and hold rentals) yet and am contemplating my best strategy to be able to qualify for the most financing.

I know this is a very general question, but is it typically better to apply for a HELOC first and then apply for the mortgages or the other way around? Ideally, the heloc would fund the down payments and the mortgages would come after but I'm not sure if this is standard practice. Does a heloc count in debt to income ratio?

Any advice is appreciated! Thank you