They may give you the balance up front for your particular case but this is not how HMLs would normally work.

Thanks for the reminder to be vigilant and to keep a balanced focus on occupancy/bookings as well as risk (trust no one).

Depending upon your occupancy type for the property and what the ARV vs the remaining balance on the note are, you may not have to come out of pocket with too much money, if any, on the refinance. 

I need to find the balance my family is comfortable with.Now, long story short I started thinking about hard money lenders.  

I could go on but as bad as it may sound you have to eliminate as much of the human interaction as possible (there's an obvious balancing act there) because humans cost so much money. 

It's a nice balance of cash flow and appreciation.

I could list a million reasons why, but for starters- most HELOCs are free to close, they don't cost a penny until you draw on them and once you pay the balance, the payment goes away forever.

If you are interested in having an account for each property Relay bank can handle that with no fees and no minimum balance. 

I just discovered T-Mobile Money which is offering 4% for the first $3000 and 1% for the remaining balance! 

Amex is amazing in that you can shift available/unused credit balance from a personal line to the new business line(s).