Refinancing question - 4+ properties

[Nate Miersma]

Question for those who work in mortgage lending, as well as for experienced investors who might think this is a stupid question: is it possible to refinance several residential multi-family properties at the same time (cash out refi) to recover the personal funds that I used to remodel/increase their value?

I've inquired with several lenders this past week (national and local) and it they all seem to say yes at first, then ultimately get a "no" somewhere in the process due to the number of properties or other federal lending restrictions. One lender says I can't have more than four properties. Another says I can refinance 3 of my investment properties but that the proceeds (cash out) must FIRST be used to pay off the mortgage on my 4th property before I can keep any "extra" funds above and beyond that. A third lender says safe harbor issues prevent it. The last lender (my current local lender) now says they'll do it, but the interest rates are higher (by .75 pts) than my current rates with them if I want to refinance which makes no sense to me.

Am I not going about this the right way? Should I be trying to refinance one at a time instead of even asking lenders about doing 4 properties at once? Should I be refinancing them into one commercial loan? I'm not experienced with this, but have one simple goal - to do a cash-out refi on four properties (three MFR, one SFR) to recover my personal funds used to improve them, all of which I have owned for 5-ish years (no seasoning issues).

Debt to income is great, credit is exceptional... there are none of those issues.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!