I’ve explored options like using a HELOC, cash-out refinance, or leveraging my home as collateral.

It's much easier to get a HELOC on a primary home than on an investment property, and terms are better.

There are multiple ways to utilize equity without paying taxes, such as cash-out refinances, HELOCs, and 1031 exchanges, making appreciation a powerful wealth-building tool.Many people lump all of California into one bucket, but it’s a massive state with many distinct markets.

I used a combination of leveraging my business line of credit, HELOC and partnerships for my first couple deals before adding in private lenders. 

But 3) Try multifamily specific brokers, crexi and loopnet, although 2-4 units maybe scarce. 4) A home equity line of credit is a good source of funds however it will generally make your overall monthly payments higher, so unless a deal is very solidly cashflowing, a HELOC may put you into negative cashflow. 7) Typically electric/gas are paid by the tenant - however this isn't true across the board. 

When I started, I used a $64K HELOC, and today, I’ve grown it into a $3,000,000+ portfolio.That being said, BE EXTREMELY PICKY with your first property.

@Collin Schwartz  I understand using the HELOC for the down payment but I am wondering how do you pay off the HELOC?

You should have no problem getting a HELOC with no bad debt.

I tried getting heloc from my large bank, However I was denied due to my income. if you can't get the credit lines for some reason from your bank then they have resources for that, even their own cpa you can use for a fee.

.: Hello,I have several SFRs that have lots of equity in them and I wondering if anyone used a method of cross-collateralization to pledge the equity as collateral, thus avoiding doing a cash-out refinance or HELOC.