What's my next move?

[Robert Melville]

I'm married, 43 and in real estate as an appraiser. I moved to VA last year after 30 years in CA. We bought 3 rentals in Memphis circa 2017, all of which are paid off. Here's where I'm stuck: I am hardly working in my real estate profession. It's so slow across the board. So we are living off our rental income. We are blessed that we have a pretty sizeable chunk in the bank. It's enough to buy a couple more rentals outright and have only a couple hundred grand left for retirement or large expenses. That would make me nervous. I would love for work to pick up but I can't count on that with the way the industry is headed. I see all these investors saying they pull equity out and buy more properties, but I need all my rental income and doing that seems like it sounds easier that it actually is. For example, when we first bought the properties, we weren't planning on paying them off early, so they made a couple hundred dollars each. So how do you pull a loan out to buy another one and still make money? So I'm trying to have someone explain that to me with more info. Like I said, it sounds easy but it seems like when these people say they do that, it leaves out that these cash out refis cost money and raise the mortgage which lowers the net income. The other reason I'm posting here is to get some advice about some smart moves I should be making. Has anyone been in a similar position with very little income from work and so much reliance on rental income? Thanks everyone