if you have more than 4 mortgages (or houses with any debt tied to them), then you can't do a cash out refi at all.People tend to say you have 4 or more confirming mortgages, but if you have 3 confirming mortgages, and 2 houses in hard money, if they find out about the two (and trust me, they can), they will put you under the 5-10 guidelines with no cash out,,,trust me on this, I know from experience

I guess the east side tends to be the war zone of Cleveland?

The reason why I ask is because I have done both in the past and I feel that when borrowing under your personal name the banks tends to offer better loan products in terms of interest rates, amortization, and points.

A lot of heavy lifting with these types of deals Ask most not all the long term investors they tend to shy away from these deals and segment of the market( most not all ).Then look at most of the hedge funds that came in and purchased turnkey.

(Not saying this guaranteed, but in my area the functionally obsolete tend to be in less nice neighborhoods with lower income tenants.)

Plus, no matter how good your agent (or anybody you are working with) is, they tend to get complacent if they dont have at least a little competition.

It's not usually a big deal, although I tend to disapprove of them personally, to convert a garage to living space, it is more likely to be a problem if you convert SFR to multifamily without the proper permit/zoning.

This tends to prolong the process and I have lost out on tenants due to that.   

Sounds like you may have some nuts!

First of all, listings with realtors, they tend to want cash only, and unless you have their commission it in to give them, they're not going to help you do a creative deal.My first meeting always is with the seller in with a vacant house, is not easy to find them but it is possible.I want to show the seller some creative solutions in case the listing doesn't work out.I also explained if they want to get out of the listing they need to talk to the broker but the agent is working forOnce I have a seller interested in a creative solution and we are both happy with doing with the agent, the seller contact the agent and negotiate some kind of a deal with the agentRegardless as far as how you feel the agent has performed, there's a contract with the seller and the agent, and they need to work it out.Procuring cause is a term in real estate law that basically says who introduce you to the seller?