Improving a Property, taking out a HELOC, and then refi

[Forester Tesche]

Hi everyone!

My buddy just scored a super awesome property that has the potential for some serious value add. it is a 3000 square-foot 2 bed 2.5 bath house they want to turn into a 3/3. To do everything they want is going to take a couple years but I was curious if they could shorten the timeframe and do part of the rehab now, get it appraised, and then take out a line of credit on the place to fund the rest. Once it is done they would refi and pay off the line of credit. Do you know of anyone doing this? 

Thanks :)