5 paid off rental properties Norther VA. What would you do?

[Jesse Baker]

Hello Forum, 

This is my first post and have been listening to the podcast for a few months.  Seems like this would the place for some advice! 
 
I manage 5 family rental properties in the Northern VA area. My wife owns 3 and my mother in law owns the other 2. All properties are paid off and have tenants. We were thinking about buying more rentals with the equity or just rental income from the properties. Not sure what the best option is for my situation but here are my options that I can think of.

1. Sell the properties to my LLC, owner financed and then take the rental income from the properties to buy more.

2. Refinance the properties to fund new investment properties. 

We don’t really need the money and could fund deals, but more money at low rates never hurts and the owner financing write offs might benefit my family in taxes yearly or down the road.  What would you do? I’d love any suggestions.