Every property purchased with cash has 100% equity for the owner...that was very much the case with Manafort.
A home equity line on such a property would be standard for any investor and those equity lines are typically convertible to a standard mortgage at the request of the customer.
Manafort could have easily bought a property for $1M cash, then tapped the equity line on it for $700K to finance his next cash purchase, then tapped the second property's equity line for $500K to finance his third purchase.
Completely legal and a common place practice for many investors.
I had completely mis-stated my thought process and am only catching that now, so my apologies. You're correct, that's exactly what Manafort did and that was my understanding.
What I attempted to say and poorly communicated was that my very limited understanding of HELOC agreements involved properties for which a buyer/owner had some equity in with a loan to cover the remaining balance and then took out a loan for the value of the property.
That itself is likely incorrect too, so I very much appreciate your explanation. Thanks for adding to the discussion and your patience.