You could also consider house hacking locally.  

There are 9 x buyers for owner occupied houses than there are investor buyers. 

I have been house hacking for the last year.

Thanks everyone.Annual T4 income: 250K380K in liquid investments.Principle property est. valued at 670K with 250k left owing and 155K heloc attached.Rental 1: purchased 2021 for 220K current est. value at 270K was a house hack with 5% down and $1600 monthly rental income.Rental 2: purchased 2022 for 280K 20% down current est. value 345K rental is $2000 monthly Rental 3: purchased 2023 for 267K with 20% current est value 310K rents for 2100 a month.

If I were you I would look into the possibility of starting off with a house hack.

Im currently house hacking a triplex property I bought not too long ago with one inherited tenant who was there when I bought the property. 

If you’re comfortable with a bigger investment, a duplex is good for the benefit of additional cash flow and you could house-hack.

My goal is to buy a house in the area and house hack the remaining rooms.

Is it better to keep adding equity by doing work on the houses while I'm renting them then refinance to recover the initial down-payment to reinvest into another property or to pay down the heloc?

Focus on analyzing properties and starting small, like house hacking or buying a single-family home to rent out rooms, while ensuring cash flow and maintaining an emergency fund.