What you can do is a cash out refinance and pay off the Heloc and take out some cash and consolidate (2) loans into one.If you were to calculate (3) loans more than likely your "blended rate" would be higher than a COR right now.

Here is the thing, your rental property will likely perform not based solely on whether its a Class A, B, C, or D but more on whether your tenant is a Class A-D person. 

This era the best bet on your money is hard assets & owning debt, not taking debt(in most cases).

I would love to hear from people who run lower end (C or lower) rentals and have managed to run them stably.

Utah is a sure bet on equity build, not so much cash flow however. 

I only invest in C+ or better areas. 

***Only exception is if an owner has plan & funds to reposition Class D to Class C or higher.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/776/topics/960183-what-they-dont-tell-you-about-cheap-rental-properties?

Further, too many groups coming together can mean too many cooks in the kitchen and lack of the ability to execute the biz plan properly.You bet on the jockey first. 

It is a good tax savings strategy especially if you are a firm believer in money now is worth more than money later.Are they schedule C or E?

Nowadays I use what I've learned and help investors building their rental portfolios in class C neighborhood while personally I either build Padsplit in class C or build high end vacation rental in class A area and hold them.