Purchase another rental or not?

[Chad LaPlace]

Hello, all. Long time lurker here, thanks for this great community that has provided me with much information over the years. Here is my scenario, please tell me what you think my options are and what you would do in this scenario. I'll try to keep the history brief.

Purchased first home in 2008, wife was 1 year from graduation so we decided to rent it out for a year before remodeling and moving in. Became a landlord for 3 years, liked it. Moved in and remodeled in 2011. Once we had 2nd child, decided to move into mother-in-laws house since she invited us and it's a 2700 sq ft property with no mortgage, big yard for kids, mother-in-law lives on property to help with kids, etc. We moved into mother-in-laws house in 2013 and maintained property, paid property taxes and insurance, remodeled 80% of the rooms as a way to repay the favor. Rented house that we originally purchased for much more money since it was newly remodeled, wife and I liked being landlords and we accumulated a good amount of savings. Decided to purchase another rental, we are in a great rental area IMO (metro-Richmond, VA) and with the depressed market at the time found we could double our mortgage payment with rent collected(2nd property gets $1000/mo PITI is $418). Savings quickly grew again and found an amazing brick rancher around the corner from 2nd rental that was being sold by the children who recently inherited the property, got it for what I feel is a steal (3rd property rent $1050 PITI is $450). Now we have 3 houses that are all cash flowing well, of course we want a 4th property.

Here is the problem. Wife is ready to move out of mother-in-laws house to a better school district into our "forever" home. I'm being told different things from different individuals (RE agent, Mortgage broker) about the limit of the number of conventional loans one can have. My wife and I are both the principals on all loans. I've recently established an LLC and am in the process of setting up a business checking account, we've always reported all income from the rentals and done everything correctly to my knowledge. I have not checked with current holders of the loans to see if it is going to be difficult to transfer titles to the LLC. If we obtain a 4th rental property with a 4th conventional loan, will we be unable to obtain a 5th conventional loan when we purchase our own house to live in? Will we have to pay off the balance on one of the rental loans to qualify? What are the options in this scenario? Thanks in advance.

PS - I don't think this post qualifies as "seeking a mentor" but if it is violating any rules, I apologize.