The same applies to buying businesses whether it’s online businesses, plumbing companies, or professional services like a CPA rollup.

I'd recommend finding a lender that can seamlessly do both the Hard Money lending and refinancing to make it easier for you. 

If your goal is to maximize liquidity for future deals, reducing your cash outlay or exploring refinancing options could make sense.

You can also check their reviews online at Google, Facebook, or Yelp.

Join local meetups or online groups (here on BiggerPockets, Meetup.com, other other local REIA are the good ones).

The US government is also refinancing our debt every year, and we can't take a doubling or tripling of the interest rate.

Nonetheless, I agree... with your mortgage rate being so low, it seems like it makes sense to access the equity via other methods beyond refinancing. 

I understand equity and cash-flow are related, but what I mean is that I don't need the cash flow right now as much as I'd like to build a strong portfolio that can cash flow even more later on.I've owned a single-family rental for 4 years, but on mulitple fronts I felt like I've done a poor job self-managing it, so this Fall I picked up the Turners' book on managing rentals and that's what led me here to Bigger Pockets online.

He practiced that well and his son is now one of the largest developers in the country, if not the world.The nice thing for investors is that there should be a 2-3 or maybe 4 year gap in major apartment developments coming online. 

If the software is not simplifying your life or making you more accurate, you shouldn't use it.Software does have 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.