It would be best to schedule a call so that these items could be discussed in more detail and provide answers to any additional questions you might have. 

@Chris Kay beleive you can do DSR loans without a job as they qualify the property, not the borrower.You'd still need 20-25% down though.That's where you have a decision:- Pay down the mortgage, setting yourself up for a future refinance to free up your VA Entitlement.OR- Save up for your next acquisition.Only YOU can make that decision as you have to be comfortable with the increasing debt-load risk and the additional time to manage everything.

I prefer an assignment @William Causey as it keeps me off the chain of title and any issue(s) that go with being in the chain, as well as any additional expenses related to a doublel close.

Additionally, if the market conditions improve, you might have a better opportunity to refinance at a more favorable rate.5.

Maybe you could extend the closings with some additional earnest money (even if you release it) and buy the time so you can simply do a regular 1031 exchange.  

You can evaluate the additional cost and payback time as if you were paying for heat to get a handle on it but the jump to most efficient is probably not worth it in your situation.

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.

The reason I mentioned DSCR loans is because if a property I buy and bring up to rent ready standards then starts cash flowing, rather than waiting to collect enough cash from the rents before I start on another property I'd like to accelerate the process by getting an additional loan and putting that money to work elsewhere - haha, I hope I'm making sense.

These are professionals with additional training and a stricter code of ethics.

However we often find our electricians get more expensive the longer we use them so we are constantly looking for additional electricians.