With the help of the family member, we got all 15 heirs to sign with us and said due tot he complexity of the deal, we were able to payoff the remaining debts and put some money in each of their pockets.

On the other hand, having rental income without having to worry about another debt is nice, but then the equity is locked up in the house and no tax benefit. 

HELOCs are better for short term debt such as flips, cash out refinances are better for long term debt such as down payments on buy and hold.You will have to do some "dialing for dollars" to find a regional bank or credit union that'll do a HELOC on a rental. 

It may be sensible to retire this debt prior to paying off our HELOC. 

This place also purchased the debt of TransAmerica Financial Solutions.

This definitely wouldn’t help...but they had accumulated quite some debt from the revitalization project, it seems 

If so, the lender will pay off the existing debt and take 1st DOT for sure.

i like to base my net income as what I will be putting in my pocket after all expenses and debt services. 38k after expenses and 18k after mortgage is what I was referring to.

We have put some of our properties into a debt snowball, by which the extra rent over the mortgage on most of the rentals all go to pay off one house at a time.  

Arguments for a 30 year loan: (1) You lock in your fixed payment in "2018 dollars" for the next three decades, when that $700 will be worth a lot less (Jason Hartman calls it "inflation-induced debt destruction")(2)  Since your payments are lower, you have increased cash flow that can be used to deploy capital into new projects(3)  If unexpected expenses arise (personal or business), you have an immediate source of regular cash flowArguments for a 15 year loan:(1) increased equity over a shorter time horizon(2) cheaper interest rate(3) owning property "free and clear" still in your prime years and the lifting of psychological burden of debtIt really depends on your personal strategy and where you want to place your risk.