I'm semi-retired. Should I cashout refi to buy again?

[Alex Silang]

I often makes sense to cashout refi and buy again. But what makes this different is:

1) I consider myself semi-retired. Cashflow is important to me
2) I work part time so I don't have the income to get a conventional loan and my rates are higher. The quotes I've gotten have been from 4.75 (with 2 points) to 5.75)

My property is a triplex. 4000 rent, 850 mortgage, 1500 Net Operating Income. A full cash out might get me 150-160k after fees and take down NOI to $600/mo. My property is worth 450k, and current mortgage is 155k.

My plan would then be to buy a duplex or another triplex (which might take some savings but I'm pretty close). 

Thoughts are that if I could get to two triplexes that are roughly the same, that would be $1200/mo. I would benefit from 2x appreciation and 2x rent increases. Rent increases have been great over the past 5 years, going from 900 to 1350. Also, it'd be nice to spread the risk on twice as many units.

OTOH, I don't want to get stretched too thin cash-wise. An interesting alternative is to simply pay my mortgage off early. That will bump up my income by $850/mo.

Thoughts?