I am currently in Illinois however I can see myself moving to Colorado within the next few years.

You may have to sell the whole property to access the funds in the IRA or 401k when you retire and for required minimum distributions. 

We're thinking of starting out with short term rentals near or on the beach.

The same will be the case when I close on the Ohio property. 

The hard money rehab loan is not the problem.

page=3 my July 27 post) about similar circumstances in other states where the outcome was different.

My wife is the same way.

What was the outcome?

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

I'd agree with mortgage news daily - the "average mortgage rate" generally tracks very very closely with the 10-year treasury yield (+ a somewhat steady spread) - google and yahoo finance on that are pretty handy