I'm truly trying to match my existing cashflow/principal pay down with interest while reducing my repair/maintenance costs all the while giving this family a shot at home ownership.

Our DC hard money lender told me they avoid cash-out refinancing, but that my free and clear property could be used as collateral to reduce the down payment of a new loan.

If you buy properties at a discount like I do, you can use your purchase prices to significantly reduce those assessed values, thus reducing your property tax bill and increasing cashflow. 

If you are using the same partners on each property, the Series is a great option for asset protection while reducing your accounting costs. 

They can also stay with you but reduce the space they want.

We cannot get any  new mortgages in my wife's name as she brings in no income*I've started to investigate portfolio loans (commercial loans) but they are way expensive and will cut into most net cash flow, or I'll have to put down much more thus reducing monthly ROI.   

In the end the interest rate was either too high (along with the fees) or there was a ridiculous commercial ammortization that made it impossile to cash flow or, in the case of refinancing our portfolio to pull cash out, the LTV was reduced greatly to meet their "requirements" which made the loan and time involved getting it, pointless.So, we have a portfolio of properties where around half are paid off and half are mortgaged.

It's just (most likely) going to have to be at a substantially reduced priced.

so you have three choices:(1) buy a non-owner occupied property and rent it out (you'll continue living where you are now or somewhere else) (2) buy a multi-fam and live in one unit, rent out the other(s) (3) buy an owner occupied (OO) property and rent out a bedroom do the math on each - with an OO you may qualify for an FHA insured mortgage which should allow for a reduced down payment (perhaps as low as 5%, sometimes lower).

I may lose $100/month because I didn't include fridges, but consider the cost of just a single eviction, and it's worth it to substantively reduce the odds of dealing with that.Kind of an interesting minority opinion, eh?