Reverse Mortgage .. or not.

[Rob Bianco]

I've been at the real estate thing for about 18 months and so far so good, but I would like some opinions on whether it would be a good or bad idea take out a mortgage on my rentals which I own in full. 

I currently have 5 multi-family properties and buying cash has been better since deals have been hard to come by but after taking ownership I never took out equity on the properties for various reasons like being a newbie and the units always needed a few repairs, as well dealing with bad inherited tenants. Up till now it never felt like a good move since I didn't want to be underwater with the mortgage but now I've got the units mostly stabilized and this would be an appropriate way to scale? 

My math on paper basically shows that if I take out 60% equity on each property that by reinvesting it into more rentals I not only scale long-term through more appreciation but my rental income as a whole comes out greater? Right now each unit has a net monthly income of about $1,400. I looked at a mortgage calculator to estimate that removing 60% of my equity creates a $500/month expense per property (based on an average of $170k value per property). So while I'd net $900/month per property I can take my $340,000 from the bank and repeat this process another 5 times before I spend it all? 

If yes, does that mean if those properties also generate a net of $1,400/month then after I take out 60% equity on those properties I'll have a total of $900/month x 10 properties total = $9,000/month net ? Currently I'm only getting  $7,000/month net so I'd be a fool not to do this, yeah?

Sorry for the long-winded post. I just need someone to tell me I'm not crazy.