or pay down new 8.55 rate rental property with 5 year prepayment penalty

Yes, today with the high prices and high interest rates it is harder , but still not impossible.  

. - Consolidating at a lower rate.

Every year you have a vacancy rate from the year before. 

I recommend using the company that you have other policies with since they'll be able to provide you a bundle discount. 3 - Look at market rate, and charge slightly under.

You can borrow more than 75%, but you have to be mindful of cash-flow and interest rates.

@Jake Posnerstrongly recommend looking closer to home - OOS investing is more difficult than it's made out to be. andwith rates where they are, there's just about no cash flow right now unless you employ a creative strategy or a combination of creative strategies.if you just buy any old property in any old market, you're not going to cash flow.

I am interested to see if lowered interest rates even helps affordability or just raises prices. 

I built a software called Areii that allows you to get property value estimates and rental rate estimates.

Be conservative when you run your numbers on rents with prices/interest rates.