Using a HELOC to fund your first rental can be a great strategy, especially if you want to preserve your cash for other expenses or unexpected costs.

My wife and I started managing more properties for others as word of mouth recommendations started and we started to use the management and arbitrage cash flow to acquire our own properties and fund the BRRRs we were working on.  

Quote from @Ricardo Lemus: For a newer investor, a good investment is a property that pays for all expenses with some cash left over.

Well, a lot of life happened and now I am getting back to zero no debt and I'll be renting for now and I am considering a duplex to buy cash or maybe land and some sort of unconventional home but still purchasing cash.

Seller won’t budge on price and it will be tight for cash flow.

Unless you have an immediate need for the cash I'd wait until I could pull out the extra $40k. 

The particulars of a project, whether fix & flip (cash now), fix & hold (cash flow), rehab & reboot (cash out), is only one of many ways lenders decide whether to invest or not.

I cash flow them to buyers on lease options with a hefty option payment up front to me.

The amount of cash flow on a home will of course be contingent on the down payment.

And not to mention no stock matches the dividend rate one can get in real estate with such low risk/volatility. 20yrs ownership, oh-yeah, cash-flow on renting it would be HUGE now so it's easily comparable to a 20%+ monthly dividend, if not more.