I think the medium term rental strategy would work well here.

The brands to be very leery of are Square D XO, Zinsco & Sylvania Zinsco and Federal Pacific Stab-lok.

I'm unsure how well it is now since it was acquired but Ryan (Founder) cared a lot about his product so I'm sure it's still fine.

Let's say my 1st mortgage balance is $600k and I want to take out a 2nd mortgage for $150k for home improvements which makes the interest on the 2nd deductible as well.

I've owned it for 7 years and it has not gone well with the residential units.

Blake, I am a Waco local, have worked as a project estimator for Belfor property restoration, remodeled homes in Waco, and have local insight to great General Contractors as well as specific tradespeople. 

Do we need a guarantor listed as well?

Study flipping very well before you jump in. 

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this data, I have attached the link as well so you can see where they pulled this from.

LLC's can sometimes complicate things, just open a bank account for your rentals and use a program like quickbooks to do and manage your books. you could even hire someone for around $100/mo to do this for you as well