They dont have any equity in the property anyway, its a matter of finding a way to convince them to trust you, that you will pay off their mortgage. 

Some banks want me to own the property for at least 6-12 months before I can refinance/pull out equity.

I remember selling my house in MD (close to Washington DC) in 2009 for career movement purposes back to GA, and I suffered quite the whipping to the tune of six figures (all lost equity) on a House I had owned for ~ 5 years.  

If someone is wanting to do the 10k or 25k stuff I am not interested in it as a sponsor.I look at headache, equity return, and time with the relationship.

Plus...escape velocity...Episode 113 – Jay Papasan - Very practical slow and steady adviceEpisode 221 - Tim Shiner - his concept of equity build up and "shearing the sheep" shows some of the flexibility of real estate vs a 401k Last but not least, I also recommend all the tax advice given by my fellow CPAs on the BP Podcast.

Either way, as long as the numbers work well and your bringing in equity and cash it can be a good investment.

My husband and I currently have 1 rental unit, a townhome which cashflows a bit over $500 a month in the Portland OR area, I have had this unit about 4 years now, so I got it for a great price at a good interest rate.I also have my own home, and both of these properties have a lot of equity in them, I have about $260K worth of equity altogether that I could get on an HELOC if I wanted to (this is the 80% LTV less current mortgages, actual equity is more). 

Roughly 75k in equity.

My siblings and I purchase the house with an LLC and just the equity to pay for the home and expenses. 

If so, ideally you would be able to pull out all of your funds, perhaps a profit, leave 20+ % equity, and still have the deal cash flow nicely.