Rental portfolio loans non-recourse

[Frank Robinson]

Hi, would love everyone's opinion. I own 7 multi-fam rental properties that have an aggregate value of ~$4mm. Current debt against them is ~$2.8mm via individual recourse investment property mortgages. Because these are personal and not commercial investment property mortgages, the structures are very attractive - 30 yr fixed rates that are around  3.5%, 20% down originally, with no prepay penalties, reserve  requirements, etc. The properties currently CF ~10-12% on my equity into them. What i'm struggling with is whether it's worth trying to do a  non-recourse portfolio rental loan that combines all these into one  loan. advantages are mainly that i get to wipe off the recourse nature  off the record, can structure a 10-year IO period and ARM after that; however, the cost to complete is meaningful - 1% origination fee, $2-4k closing fees, new title policies cost of $15k or so, higher coupons of 4.3% +/-, prepay penalties and non-assumable, probably more difficult to selloff properties individually. I have a full-time job outside these investments. My primary focus is accumulate rental property over time for passive income growth and earlier retirement (I'm in my 30s)

2 questions:
1. What would folks do in this scenario? Keep the recourse low-rate fixed structures given properties are generating enough CF cushion to protect against a rainy day or refi with a portfolio loan to get rid of the recourse nature of  the properties?

2. Would you direct the excess CF generated by the  properties to pay down the mortgages ASAP to create more cushion or not  given today's high inflation and relatively low mortgages rates?

thanks!