I understand business is slow right now relative to recent years, I'd recommend you get a better grip on being a REI agent.

I plan to use a HELOC but would be interested in the thoughts of others in BPs on this approach or recommendations if there are other ways to financing that I should consider.

Our kids are really young, we would like to put the LLCs in a trust to avoid probate, what do you guys recommend?

I would greatly appreciate any guidance, resources, or recommendations you may have for someone in my position.

Even so I would not recommend filing bankruptcy.

From my own personal experience and from others I think most reach the "tipping point" from self managing to using a PM somewhere between 5-15  units, especially if you have a W2 and want to continue to scale. 

@Isaac Terry Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

It's hard to give any recommendations without any specific questions/real numbers.

My last offering was has been a real challenge and Matt has stuck with it for over a year.Never swaying from his commitment to me and my success.You need to be willing to take his advice and work hard but his stuff works.I would whole heartedly recommend him to anyone who is serious about raising private money.

Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.