Here’s how I’d approach it:For the 9.5% Loan: Refinancing into a DSCR loan makes sense to lock in a lower fixed rate, especially if your goal is stability and better cash flow.For the 7.25% Loan: If the local bank's investment HELOC offers a competitive rate, consider it for flexibility.

For instance, someone making $500k a year and living in a very highly appreciating market might be extremely happy on a deal that loses $200 a month but is getting 5% appreciation on a 2 million dollar property in San Diego, butut that doesn't make sense for the investor with 30k and a lower paying job.When it comes to the book series I agree with you that the order doesn't make sense (having read both).

This is what is pushing up rental demand for small MF properties that having lower rents, fees, or total move in costs compared to other larger commercial apartment complexes.

Without new companies creating similar-paying replacement jobs, workers may have to settle for lower-paying service sector positions.

DSCR right now is going to have better rates and lower cost right now.  

Lenders will finance up to 80% of the appraised value, so if the value does come in lower, that will result in a lower loan amount. 

Additionally, don’t overlook the opportunity cost of pulling money from your 401k—those funds could have been compounding in the market.I’d also suggest stress testing your ROI by running scenarios with higher expenses or lower rents to see how resilient the investment is.

Net effect, typically, means distributions are not taxed in current year, but do lower your basis resulting in larger tax bill upon sale.Depreciation reflected in the net gain/loss from rental box on K-1.  

Either1) your startup takes off and you can distribute profit fast enough to pay off your debts, or2) you find another source of $100,000 a year (which barely even starts to pay down the $300k, but might provide a better chance for a better loan), or3) you BK and possibly lose the rental houses to creditors (hopefully not, but we don’t know how they are held), or 4) you sell the houses, take the tax hit, work with the IRS on a payment plan whose interest will be much lower than your CCs, and focus on the startup.  

FHA rates are actually lower than conventional right now even though there is a monthly mortgage insurance it’s not much in most cases.