Traditionally, the courts give a lot more weight to what actually happened over what is written on paper.

What is funny from all investment, either real estate or anything else, is how correlate they are to bond which is very correlated to Fed policy.I meant, Fed could make one guy become rich or poor in different year. 

So yes, you should not expect to get rich quick in real estate.

We ended up going the HELOC route on that property for a few reasons. 1) the interest at the time was only 5%, which although seemed high, didn't matter too much with our potential property showing a 18% ROI 2) we leveraged a second home loan with 10% down for that new property, so our HELOC withdrawal was relatively small compared to what would be needed for a traditional loan on a rental. 3) I dont think I will see the rates in the 2% again in my lifetime, so figured I should hold on to that "free money" instead of selling it. 

You should refocus on making it as a safe, conservative, get rich slowly, investor.  

If they are able to rinse and repeat this type of strategy to leverage equity in a property to secure another, is it because they don't have a traditional mortgage loan on the properties they purchase?

If its not newbies who want to get rich quick and never return to read the answers, or people who are butt hurt because a response didnt make them feel good. 

.- Streamline Process: Bypass the bureaucratic hurdles of traditional lenders.By leveraging hard money loans, home equity lines of credit, partnerships, and private lenders, you can boost your ROI and take your real estate investing to the next level!

There are no classroom presentations, get-rich-quick gurus, or sales pitches.

Everyone knows the 3% or 4% balance transfer fee, but compare the fee to the interest you will pay over the same period with a traditional loan.If you have $10k in debt at an 8% interest rate with a traditional loan versus $10k of credit card debt with a 4% fee and keep both for a year (making minimal payments), you will pay less interest with the credit card.