You can also do 3.5% down on FHA with 2-4 Units as long as you meet the self sufficiency requirement. 75% of the rental income from the units must cover the full mortgage payment. 

With these terms, the cash from the refinance would not be sufficient to pay my HELOC.I was told that a portfolio lender may be able to loan me with different guidelines.  

It's not sufficient to simply prove that it's not connected at either end anymore?

@Eddie Gonnella  FHA is all about self-sufficiency test to count the rental income.

We plan on renting this one out when we hit 20% equity as well.The Plan: If we can get a mostly self-sufficient tenant, we will pull out some equity to use to fund the next property, which will NOT be in NOVA.

(Because, there should already be sufficient equity from wise buying).

Here is my short list of items to bring to your attention without knowing much more context:Make sure you can acquire a sufficient amount of water for the total unit count.

We moved quickly when sufficient data was available but didn't hesitate to slow down when it wasn't.

It just seems like you are doing extra work and I understand why you would want to do that, but if you look at the accounting records, that should be sufficient enough to tell you how much you income and expenses went in and out every month.

The only time you would have to is if the loan amounts are not sufficient (100,000 min per property.)