Refinancing or Heloc? Need advice.

It is getting more & more difficult to find a bank to do a refi that is unseasoned (less than 1 year old purchase). Even with having a seasoned property, if it is non-owner occupied can be hard. Many banks are not investor friendly. In fact even with over 800 credit some of the larger banks will not do a refi. Also remember the closing costs can be substantial.
A Heloc usually doesn't have the expensive closing costs, possibly lower
interest rates since they are usually a shorter term such as 15 yrs. The nice
thing about a line of credit is you are only paying for the money you actually
take out. The payment is based on a formula per diam X interest rate X days per month. This way you can get 100K heloc, but only take out 50K to purchase
a property, then maybe take out another 20K to rehab it as needed. Now when the property is sold you can replace the borrowed money & pocket the profit.
Either way you must be able to qualify for the loan; income, loan to debt ratio, & credit score are factored into the equation.

Thank you for your input. I didn't know that even in a free and clear property there is the issue about seasoning. I'll keep in mind the heloc which sounds more feasible.

Gary, so if we buy a property with cash now close on it today, the very next day would we be able to take out a heloc?

what's the time frame for a Heloc?

The property would have to be recorded with the county/town first; this can usually take two weeks or even more depending where you live.
The time frame for a heloc is faster than a refi, some banks do it two weeks since they just do a title search to make sure there are no other encumbrances on the property, in most cases just a drive by appraisal & comp it to other similar properties in the neighborhood for the value. There is no inspections or usually no surveys or application fees.
The closing is done at the bank, very quickly with no lawyers or title companies.
They are a little harder to get now than they were a few years ago, but
are still a very good vehicle for low cost short term financing, especially on a fix & flip.
We have used them on many properties. We even had taken 300K on our primary residence in case we stumble upon some additional good deals. When BOA
began to cut or close heloc a few years ago, we pulled out all the money & went down the street to another bank & deposited it into a money market. Since
the BOA heloc was interest only at 2.75% it's cheap money to have on hand.
Remember it's OPM (Other People's Money)so in essence it's a "no money down deal". We have even paid for a house with a credit card. (It was a great deal & made about 48% return on our investment).

So how should we approach banks about the Heloc?

Once the property is recorded, just go into the bank & get the info on heloc, then proceed accordingly.

gceriani has the right idea.

Helocs and refi's usually take about a year being in the property. Local community banks have the option to get around this if they would like to; commonly known as a no-seasoned refinance.

Regardless:
Refi's allow you to use your money over and over and over again. You simply pay interest/principal payments while you have the money. The difficulty is that they money paid back on the principal is never used again.
Example:
You owe: $70,000
You refi for: $100,000
You have: $30,000 cash
You pay down your loan to: $90,000
You only have $20,000 left of the refi that you are playing with.

Helocs are often similarly to the refi but you only pay interest on the amount that you use.