Should I cash out refinance or not?

[Jack B.]

I sold the house I was living in a couple years ago and moved into the cheapest of my rentals. I do plan on eventually renting it back out. I'm kind of comfortable here right now, it's not perfect, but it works for me for now as far as commuting routes, etc.

Key facts:

-My mortgage payment is a whopping...$974 a month, lol. A lot better than my previous one that cost me nearly 4K a month to live in. As a result of this my investment income covers my mortgage and my living expenses (well at least if I stop buying new toys).

-I plan on taking the cash which would be 150K and buying 2 more rentals with the money. I also plan on doing this with another house that is currently a rental. So total would be 300K between the two houses (and like I said the rental would be getting refinances for sure, the house I'm living in is the one I'm not sure about).

-I have enough money on hand right now without refinancing to buy 6 more houses (800K available roughly). So I don't NEED to cash out refinance, so much as prefer investing money that I got from property appreciation rather than deploying money that is not in rental houses (once your money is in a rental, it's tough to get it out without refinancing. I've done deferred exchanges, but they are not tax free, just tax deferred...)

-They key concerns I have about doing this, otherwise I would have done it already, are:

-I lose my cheap place to live. My mortgages will all be around 2.5-3K instead of 1K. Albeit it's
not the best area as far as safety. While living here, I can live off my investments (although I
do still work a W2 job).

-The property will not cash flow AS WELL as it does not (1K a month cash flow after ALL
expenses) when I eventually rent it back out. Right now my houses all cash flow like crazy.
$500-1,000 each almost. If I refinance I'm looking at $200-300 each, if that.

tl'dr: I want to grow my portfolio of rentals by cash out refinancing instead of using cash on hand to buy more. Cash out refinancing will cost me a cheap place to live and will also decrease my cash flow from the rentals for now. But in the long run the income growth will pay huge dividends. Should I or should I not refinance? Or should I call it good and play it safer? I can pay all of them off but that's risky, exposes you to more risk of lawsuits. I'm almost 38.