For instance if this is a $10M portfolio that's levered with loans totaling $9.1M, there's no equity that can be pulled but if this is a $1M portfolio with $100K of debt, its a different story.

Hello Doug, I am not a real estate attorney nor is this legal advice.Unless someone's state has specific laws banning contract assignments you should be fine doing the following.  

Refinance into a debt service loan.

Hi @Heather Bailey something to consider with this is legal mother/daughter may not mean legal duplex. 

- FYI: it's only illegal to try to rent it out, the property owner can usually legally live in a nonconforming basement unit.If you do all this you may still negatively cashflow each month, so make sure your income can cover and/or your cash reserves.If you do this successfully, you will learn more in 1-2 years than you would reading here on BP for 5+ years:)Good luck:)

Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

You have used home equity lines of credit to purchase investment rentals and want to know the best way to pay down the HELOCs.Between the two properties you bought, after expenses, you have $250 a month positive cashflow to use.What I like to do is pay down some principal every month with my positive cashflow.I use my extra active income from real estate commissions helping other investors to pay down the principal even more which just frees up that credit for me to use again.I know I can refinance the HELOC debt before it changes to principal and interest as it is just interest only payments as yours are.One difference is the cashflow, I have greater positive cashflow and could make the principal and interest payment in the future with the extra cashflow I already enjoy.I always get HELOCs on my income properties as well after purchasing them to pull out as much of my downpayment as possible.

Or would Legal Zoom suffice?

Perfectly legal, no hassles.

I have helped clients identify attorneys so they can have their legal rights protected.