Financial Structural Issues

[Dan Green]

Good morning everyone. I'm stuck in a couple of financial structural issues that I was hoping someone could help me attempt to resolve.

I have 2 duplexes; one I live in with the other unit rented out and the other's rented out on both sides.

The one that I don't occupy is under my former business partner's and my names. Through mutual agreement, I'm attempting to get him off the mortgage without effecting the 4.071% interest rate. The suggestion of doing a loan assumption came up, however I'm concerned about it triggering the due on sale clause. I have $150k in equity I'm attempting to tap into in order to purchase my next property.

The other property which I do occupy is solely under my name. I'm attempting to put it under an LLC or something to decrease my personal DTI because this property's at a 0.98 ratio. Attorneys have told me switching my personal residence to an LLC will significantly lower my DTI and likely qualify me for additional properties, however doing so has created a challenge because my current rate there is 2.5% and I know switching to an LLC definitely changes it. I'd love to try to tap into that equity as well given there's $100k in it.

With both properties presenting their current respective challenges, I wanted to ask if anyone has suggestions on how to tap into either equity so I can continue my real estate journey?