Paying off Home or Refinance and Take Cash Out- advice please!

[Mary White]

Okay, so I know much of the advice out there says to leverage your primary home to increase your capital for buying properties. I'm considering going a different direction and paying off our primary home to increase cash flow. We bought our primary as a foreclosure in 2011 for $140,000 and currently owe $126,000. The house is valued at $220,000 so there's plenty of room to refinance and pull out enough money for a multi-family down payment. We own 2 multi-family units (10 total doors) and could buy 2-8 more doors with the cash out money. With current rental income we can save $3000/mo towards additional units separate from our personal expenses. Is it wise to accelerate the timeline and do a cash-out refinance for more properties faster or pay off the home mortgage and mitigate risk?

Option 1: Cash out refinance to purchase new property/Increase Cash Flow: + $1000/mo

Option 2: Aggressively Pay off Home: + $1000/mo