I always do a HELOC over home equity loan. The benefit is that you can continue to turn the money over again and again and again. I would buy a property in cash using HELOC, renovate it and then cash out refinance (getting all the money back) and pay down the HELOC to zero and then rinse and repeat. In this way I didn't need hard money or anything else. I currently have just a HELOC on my primary residence and I used that to purchase 3 flips that my partner and I have finished up.
