In part, this was attractive to me because of tax efficiency and diversification (roughly half my equity would be split into DSTs and this mortgage paper). 

Here is what you do, on a simple page of paper, do the research and get your ARV comp.

The only reason we've ever needed a POA is when an owner wanted us to sign the papers for the sale of a property.We actually connected them with an attorney to handle and they gave a POA to the attorney limited for the sale transaction only.

Or better to have paper applications. ?

Was just curious to see what others did in this scenario.At the time that we refinanced (Feb/March 2021) investment property terms were much more favorable on "conventional paper".

Bennington is amazing - we were there for a while recently stocking up on so. many. towels. at that huge walmart.

In other words, although on paper I'm responsible for more out-of-pocket expenses, I can more easily cover it. 

So, just moving the Title to your LLC and leaving the mortgage in your name, without generating any other paper, isn't going to help. 

Not every deal on paper is a good deal. 

This sounds like a good plan on paper but I think it has a chance of getting majorly derailed if you run into some additional problems while completing each unit incrementally.