Doing cash out for sake of doing cash out

[Kenneth LaVoie]

This white sounds like a silly question, What is it ever a good idea to do a cash out on a free and clear rental property just for the sake of locking in some cheap money? Even if there's no immediate plan for it. Figure losing whatever the % number for inflation is until I put it to use. (Isn't it funny how with 3% inflation we just talk about percentage return on investment but when inflation is in the news, suddenly we use it in every CAGR calculation...I mean I always factored 3% anyway, but now it's part of every calculation vs. just the more geeky calculations...but I really really digress!)

We have a home mortgage of about 40% of our home value, then 1.2-1.4M in rental properties (two 7's two 4's) with zero mortgage. I LOVE the IDEA of debt free...but love the intelligence o borrowing money at 4% while the debt "depreciates" at 7%. That said, I say that like it's ALWAYS going to be 4% (rental property loan are almost never locked in more than 5 years) and 7-8% inflation (It has to stay this way for the whole 20 years or at least 15 of it, for this to be smart. 

Any thoughts welcome! I am pretty sure this is one of those "no one right answer" questions. 

[Salvatore Lentini]

@Kenneth LaVoie - if you do a HELOC then you can get access to the money but not pay interest on it unless and until you use it. Depending on how big of a line you get you can become your own hard money lender. Or at least use it as down money on a value add deal that you can then refi and use the cash out to pay your HELOC back down.