I already have a HELOC on it and I am trying to raise my HELOC balance but the issue that I am running into is that the larger institutional banks are not willing to use the rental incomes from my 3 units toward my income in determining my debt to income ratio because the building is my primary residence. 

I have only purchased my primary residence, and this is a new learning experience for me.My question is - what are some of the real life pros and cons of using a Hard Money Lender over an Equity Partner?

The gain related to a primary residance portion of the duplex is sheltered via section 121 gain exclusion. 

Have the water bill in the name of the primary home tenant and divide the bill based on the number of persons per unit.

When you grow your primary circle of influence geometrically, you grow your secondary circle exponentially.

I don't want to mortgage my primary house.

You can live comfortably in other towns with a much less expanse on primary residence and focus on investing...That is also what we have been asking ourselves for a while.

That should be your primary goal not selling at a loss to a tenant.

: 3 properties in TX acquired before marriage, recent 1031 exchanges on 2 of these properties but kept them in my name in order to keep it simple and not upset the QI, my wife and I have setup a trust and retitled our primary residence but the TX properties are still in my name and not in any trust, all that I've found on the subject (outside of this thread) is to wait 2-3 years after the 1031 so that the TX properties are 'old and cold' and then retitle them into the trust.

When I bought a house about 12 years ago for my primary residence, I probably looked at 300 houses before I purchased one.