Have you considered consolidating what loans you currently have?

It sounds like you need to consolidate debt into something manageable.  

They have been consolidating and rebuilding ALL the city schools over the past few years, which should help with the education levels. 

Of all of the great ideas people have mentioned, here’s the ones I tend to like most:Buying an apartment building - I was thinking multiple SFRs would give me better diversification but I think some good arguments were made for consolidating costs and liabilities.

This allows for consolidated financial reporting of all properties under the holding company.Operating Company to Trust: Alternatively, the operating company could directly pay rent to the trust.

They are not all consolidated.

I can seem to find any info on 1031 ex 2 properties to 1 new.Anthony, this is called a consolidation exchange is is very commonly used by investors seeking to reduce their holdings and work load of actively managed properties.  

I would like to invest closer to home and to consolidate.

Properties with high appreciation (as long as it cash flows and you're positive) will give you the cash when you're ready to sell and want to consolidate or move on to other projects.

Adding an LLC as the limited partner may in theory give you that additional layer of control, but I would not create an LLC only for that purpose.However if you already have a holding LLC setup, I would use it as it won't cost anything more and also it will help put all your real estate income in the same bucket, simplifying the consolidation of your tax return and estate planning.