If you don’t have that experience, the lender willing to take the risk will be charging you for it (much higher rates) and that increases risk to you and your investors even further.Gurus will tell you that they can solve these problems for you.

They did give you info that they love your place, plan to stay forever, and accordingly you should increase the rent $250 per month if allowed by your local laws for the aggravation of dealing with them. 

I'm planning to value add to my Bay Area SFH which I should have done in the first place instead buying in 2023 which will increase cash flow way more than buying anymore inexpensive properties.

Able to keep the tenants and increase rent by 50%.

East Tennessee home sales increased 8.9% from the previous month, but were down 1.4% from a year ago.The median sale price was $354,000 — up 10.3% from the previous year.Total housing inventory increased from the previous year – up 24.0% from a year ago.Half of the homes sold were under contract in 28 days or less, up from 25 days a year ago.45% of homes sold for the asking price or above, with 21% selling for more than the asking price. 8% sold for at least $10,000 over asking and 2.6% sold for at least $25,000 over asking.The sale-to-list price ratio increased to 97.8% – up from 97.6% last month.New construction represented 16.5% of total home sales.If you want to dive deeper into some numbers in the Knoxville and surrounding area I'm always happy to nerd out. 

Paying off my house and increasing my heloc to invest in other properties?

I suspect Carrollton will be more attractive to you.

If you just want a little bit to help purchase the 'next one', then reduced leverage, increased cash flow monthly, and repeat until here in a few years you can refinance a few into something bigger.Good luck! 

Returns on real estate that are attractive?  

The Stessa rates are attractive enough that I would let it accumulate in their high yeild account until I invest in something.