Question about cash out refinancing

[Corey Crowley]

I am new to Bigger Pockets and this is my first post, so I apologize if these questions may seem very basic to some.

I own 7 single family homes and 2 duplexes which are all paid and have no outstanding loans. I have not purchased a property in a few years, but I am closing on a new single-family house this Friday that I am paying cash for. I am thinking about actively trying to grow my investment portfolio and use my existing properties as leverage to acquire more properties. I have a couple of questions about ownership structure and a couple about possible cash out finance options for my existing properties.

Right now, all of these homes are in personal name, and I realize how much of a mistake this is and I plan to move them into LLC's before the end of 2024. If I am about to search for some kind of cash out refinancing options, is it best to keep the properties in my personal name for now or should I move them into LLC's before searching for financing options?

My next question is about financing options. If I am looking to pull money out of a total of 10 properties to make new investments, what are the options here? Are there loans that I can take out against the entire 10 property portfolio, or do people usually get a single loan per property? If these are both options what are the pros and cons to each of these financing options?

Any advice or personal experience that you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Corey