Cheap money and low rates produce euphoria, which increases flow of money to an asset, which pushes up the price to uninvestable levels.I think it's going to get worse than better in the short term.Gino

You actually want to INCREASE it.

The property manager should be involved before you buy any property to give input on due diligence, how to increase income and reduce expenses, and to make repairs or improvements to maximize occupancy.Excellent property management is critical to your success before, during, and when planning to sell or refinance.To your success!

Ideally a HELOC is used for less then a  year project where you can refi or sell to pay back the HELOC. 5 years is a long time, things can happen and if you reduce the cashflow on both properties you'll be increasing the risk and having thinner margins.

We focus on CapEX before beauty. as a realtor we understand selling or renting homes you have to make the home function, Roofing, windows, electrical and plumbing. after we address these we focused on beautify making sure the upgrades match the area and is forward thinking with color scheme, flooring, and flow.

Rents , cash flow and appreciation increase over time. 

We plan to remove them all to protect from tax increases on our current primary, but I am afraid that now that the other properties won't have homesteads, we may see skyrocketing tax bills and it will eat into already small cash flow from rental income.Does anyone have advice for how to handle this situation other than just increasing rent?

This shift will increase the pressure for transportation to and from job centers.

Do you think the area will increase in value?

Banks, particularly smaller banks who provide real estate loans are increasingly focused on their borrowers maintaining depository relationships.