In theory I could use the HELOC that is available to me (limited) to pay off existing mortgages on 2 of my other properties, but that seems a bit like churning assets - the true intention of accessing credit is to buy other properties outright with cash.

@Erin Aumankeep your head up and keep churning!

PM's make the bulk of their money on churn. 

And you do have to "keep churning" to make money in fix and flips. 

Property managers usually take half or full months rent to place a new tenant, and there’s always at least a few weeks vacancy and make ready costs associated with churn, so less turnover the better.

I realize I will have to pay gains on it if I don’t do a 1031 exchange in so much time, but I thought if I do flips, we have to always churn the money anyway so why not pay the gains and pay down debt quickly?

If there is this much stress with churning the unit perhaps she should think about selling?

This leaves out those brokers who  churn investors money to repurchase a note, it's the shell game.   

I stopped studying rei because I thought you needed a lot of capital to start and it was slow churning process like my brother.

They're big churn & burn operations.