Need Advice on Switching Gears for Awhile

[Wendy Black]

Hubby and I (both in our mid-60s and retired) have been in the buy-and-hold RE biz for 2 1/2 years. In that time, we've amassed a home and a condo (both with mortgages), another home (held by an IRA), and soon will buy my sister's interest out of 3 mobile homes with land, left to us after our brother died. We also own our personal residence free and clear and have no interest in adding a mortgage. We've never taken anything out of the company's account to pay ourselves, although we've used it on a couple of occasions for educational purposes. We need to have a decent cushion, considering the worth of our SoCal properties.

Due to unforeseen family expenses and what's gone on in the stock market, we need to spend as little as possible (maybe up to $15k) for the time being while still being able to grow the company. I'm admittedly fairly risk-adverse in the first place, and between our ages and personal circumstances, what to do next is a challenge. We don't want to leverage--or take the chance of losing--any of our holdings. The home holding the mortgage either may end up being a future residence or may be leveraged to buy one a few years down the road. I doubt we could afford to buy back into the market, so that's off-limits. The estimated value of the condo has jumped at least $60k in 2 1/2 years (it's in OC), so we don't want to touch that. We just bought the IRA home in early fall and really can't touch it because we're not old enough. It's on a man-made lake, and the value's risen at least $20k since then. The mobiles aren't worth much, and we don't want to tap much into any other funds.

Hubby's studying notes, so that's a possibility. However, I like good, solid, SFR purchases in nice areas. All of our properties have rented quickly and have long-term residents.

We've got to be honest about what's do-able for us at this age under these circumstances.  We need recommendations from people with much more knowledge and experience than we have.  One of our mentors recently took on a subject-to and gave the guy a couple of thousand dollars to walk away, but he ended up spending $20k or so to rehab the home and get it rented.  Spending that kind of money won't work for us right now.  (Ah, how I miss the days of writing checks with six figures...)  

Looking forward to hearing some advice.  Thanks.