Cash out refi or pay off myself?

[Michael Greer]

Hello everybody, 

 I can use some advice.

2 years ago, I saved up a good chunk of money and decided to move back into real estate. 

I purchased a duplex well under market value and cashed out refied to get my money back.

I purchased a second property and Brrrr'd it,  getting most of my money back.

I purchased a condo in a very nice neighborhood with cash to provide housing for my college student vs paying a school for a dorm. So pretty much all my savings is gone.

I spoke with an older condo owner who wanted to sell and got four more condos well under market value. 

I used my home equity line of credit to finance down payment on each of these 4 additional condos with the intent of just paying it down on my own with the profits from the condos.

I now have 7 rental properties that are cash flowing nicely, but this $60k heloc balance is staring at me.

I'm considering just putting a mortgage on the first condo that I paid cash for and getting back most of my money.

I'm paying about a point higher on my HELOC than I would be paying if I put a mortgage on it. Heloc is about 9% vs a mortgage at 7.25%.

I dont really need the money now. This is just to provide me with cash flow when I retire in about 10-15 years.

I am comfortable using all the profits from my properties to pay down the HELOC and should be able to do so in the next 4 years.

I would be able to use the cash flow to pay down the other condos or purchase another property

This does limit me somewhat in purchasing additional properties in the coming years.

I'm trying to explore and research what my best options would be.

Should I just put a mortgage on the first condo or keep the HELOC and pay it down?

Which way is better? I don't have closing costs involved if I just keep my HELOC but I am paying a little bit more in interest.

I'm trying to figure out if I can use the interest I'm paying on my HELOC as a write-off since I used it to buy additional properties.

Does anybody have an opinion they would like to chime in with? 

Any advice as welcome. 

Thanks in advance.