Very few people buy a business solely in hopes of building that business resides in goes up in value.

Most commercial lenders 99.99% require you to own and have operated a commercial business or 2-3 investment homes prior to a commercial loan of that size.

It can definitely happen, but if you're leaving a bit of cash in each one that's much better than putting 25% down every time.If you don't have a value-add strategy I don't see the point in using a HELOC.

Banks are in the business to sell money.

Keep in mind, the accountant who files your taxes may not be the same accountant who advises you on wealth building strategies & thats OK. 

He does rentals in inner cities and our sfh/flip business was born.

One strategy is to look for a premium town that does not have large amounts of rental houses.

Rentals create cash flow, and that's what we want as real estate investors, but you need cash on hand for unforeseen circumstances.The AC needs to be replaced, that's $7K to $10K or more depending on the size of the house and if you have one rental, it will eat all your cash flow, same to replace a roof, etc, or if tenant trash the home, you need money to fix it again.To me personally a nice rental portfolio that is healthy consists about 10 units, so if you have an issue with a house the portfolio can cover the repairs and still healthy, but when starting you need to have cash on hand just in caseYes, there are multiple strategies you can use to hack your way to buy your first rental with minimum cash, but I would start wholesaling or fix and flip a few deals to create that cash as fast as possible

In my opinion that strategy is best for long distance investing where you need to rely on others to find the properties and handle the day to day.

@Nick SarangoulisIt’s important to spend some time thinking about your strategy and what you want to accomplish.