This way, you get to spread out those capital gains taxes over time, making your tax bill way more manageable.

All of those line items are on sale 1/3 to 1/2 off depending on the rest of the individuals taxes.I know it is a common accounting practice and a spread sheet requirement, but the idea of saving for Capex never made sense to me.  

We are finally getting started on our real estate journey and have narrowed our search down to the Atlanta, GA region. 

Heloc is around 8.5% interest and deals im looking at are 15% coc self managed, theres a bit of spread.

The benefits to using available cash to fund multiples investments as opposed to paying all cash for one investment seem pretty self explanatory, but the largest benefits...especially in real estate...are likely the ability the spread risk across multiple investments and the ability to make multiple investments in a shorter period of time, allowing your cash flow, equity, and ultimately potentially your net worth to increase at a faster pace.To answer your question about traditional financing directly, yes you can obtain a traditional mortgage and put a large cash down payment down, essentially financing 'part' of the purchase price.

We're currently in the process of narrowing down venue options and would love to hear any recommendations from those familiar with the area.

Of course there are more variables and it gets more detailed than this, but this is merely a starting point to narrow down markets that you really want to invest for research in. 

I recommend you narrow your focus down to a market and look for a good PM first.

So make sure you understand the difference of how your loan dollars are or are not secured. and then there are funds were your money is spread but your not specifically tied to a certain loan so in essance unsecured as well.

. ;-) My point is that I have done research into a number of cities, narrowed it down to 3 and now a bit stuck in deciding at this point.