Financing upfront vs Equity/Heloc acquiring new properties

Hi Everyone, So I'm trying to work on a strategy in acquiring more rental properties. I currently have aprox $300,000 in cash saved up to use towards rental properties purchase. What I had thought was to initially purchase the property with cash. Get tenants in then pull equity from the property to purchase the next one. So on and so on. The question here is: My spouse says we should just finance the property from the initial point of sale because we will save on closing etc etc that goes along with the HELOC. But I feel it's safer and banks will be more willing to lend if they see that we already have a tenant there paying rent. Let me know your thoughts. Thank you.