Unfortunately, Texas has a law prohibiting HELOCs on rental properties and I believe they also have a 70-75% max total loans allowed on the property which cuts into the equity I've built and would only allow for me to access 30K which would make it less appealing to go through the process for only 30K.

I wasn't really thrilled being forced to quickbooks online from desktop so I would like a different software for bookkeeping but need to retain my mortgage bank too. 

The same applies to buying businesses whether it’s online businesses, plumbing companies, or professional services like a CPA rollup.

Additional things to consider: where is the breaker box and do both units have access to it if needed?

Access to Larger Loan Amounts: Cross collateralization allows borrowers to leverage multiple properties, which can lead to a higher overall loan amount than what might be possible with a single property.2.

We do not do Syndications; we have access to all the funding we will ever need, and I don't like sharing the profits. 

We are hoping to avoid doing any sort of partnership and maintain a single member LLC, but searching online hasn't been fruitful.

You may have to sell the whole property to access the funds in the IRA or 401k when you retire and for required minimum distributions. 

Pretty solid points here, I would also like to add refinancing with a non-traditional DSCR based loan can assist with getting access to cash quickly as there are many lenders that have a lower seasoning requirement. 

we have participated in the on-line tax auction a few times and believe the process is very broken.