But the thing is, I don't want to completely rely on other people to manage my money, so I've been experimenting with a bunch of alternative investments, including some exotic ones, like marine vessel acquisition, law firm financing, lawsuit pre-settlement advances, etc.  

You can always leverage rentals within their ability to service the debt. 

OR refi one at 70% and get the 45k loan leaving some debt on the line of credit but keeping home 3 free and clear and adding a lot of value to it as well as getting some really good rental income from it.

Very recently had someone (who did not need to use the Bitcoin) try to increase their down payment by over a hundred grand, so they could be less in debt, using Bitcoin that had not been adequately seasoned (the Bitcoin has just gone up a zillion percent...).

One factor to consider is your interest rate on the debt.

Here's the breakdown of rental income and expense analysis:1.Annual Gross Income: $25,800 (Monthly rent of $2,150 x 12)2.Annual Expenses: $25,800 * 0.40 = $10,3203.Annual NOI: $25,800 - $10,320 = $15,4804.Annual Debt Service: $10,680 (Calculated previously using a mortgage calculator with a loan of $131,775, 7.25% interest, and a 30-year term)5.DSCR: $15,480 / $10,680 = 1.45 (approximately)

Also, do you have enough equity that if you sold one you could pay down most of the debt on the other 3?

There might be some hoops to get through with conventional financing with your income situation, but if that doesn't work, you could use a debt service loan.

They also want a priority lien on the property.It sounds like you are looking for someone to fund your down payment, I would be looking for an equity partner over debt as nobody likes to lend money in insecure positions, especially when a borrower lacks skin in the game.How much are you planning to come in with yourself?

What I take some issue with is the techniques that guru's use to up sell and so on .. and they do nothing to qualify if the person paying them if the program does not work they are now into debt to the eyeballs and so on but then again who are we to say at some point.. think of  Hewlet and Packard they went into 15k worth of debt to start HP in late 40s or early 50s and that was a ton of money then :)