We bought a home in town that has a mother in law suite with its own entrance and we're renting it out on airbnb.

Is it multifamily friendly or is it a town that prefers its SFR's instead?

I'm also in town, and will send you a PM so we can talk shop!  

I guess my question would be, other than private financing or owner financing (both options I am exploring), how do others deal with the length of the loan?  

Just go to the town/city you want to invest in and ask the Town Clerk if the town has any tax owned or surplus properties for sale.However, you will generally need to pay cash for the properties.

Any town with 150,000 people has a plethora of good and bad options.

One thing I like to do in abq is if I’m purchasing multi units in rougher parts of town make sure I’m getting a good deal on purchase price (usually my numbers are around 1.3-1.5% on the ‘2% rule’ if you’re familiar with that so I make sure I’m getting solid cash flow.

I have considered the HELOC option, but not explored it fully. 

The property is in the Oakhills school district (one of the better Highschools on the West side of town)@ EveryoneThanks everyone for the advice, I'm going to start making as many small changes/improvements as I can now with the intention of asking the current tenants to leave after their lease expires.

I’m exploring an opportunity to purchase 4 multi-family properties in partnership with others.