Family Financial Crisis/Cancer/Need Advice

[Wendy Black]

We've had a long-standing, complex medical situation with our family that has turned into a family emergency.  Our 32-year-old daughter-in-law, the mother of four young children, has developed breast cancer.  We need some cash off of one of our properties for bills, as well as a stream of income to take its place, but to sell it outright, the numbers don't make sense.  This is far beyond our expertise to unravel and are hoping to find some saavy BP investors to present us with some reasonable options, especially considering our ages (late 60s).  

We bought a 2/2 condo (1050 sq. ft.) in June of '13 for $339k, with a down payment of $209k. It's in a beautiful area of inland South OC. We owe about $102k on a 30-year of 3.75%. Redfin estimates it around $447k. We have a tenant in there until the end of August. We're clearing about $250/mo. Rent is $1950, PITI is $1115, the HOA is $365, and PM fees are $160.

Redfin estimates that if we were to sell it at that $447k price, we'd have $332k in proceeds, but that's just based on her 1% commission.  That doesn't include the buyer's agent commission or taxes.  We estimate we'd only pocket $80k.  Even though it provided a stream of income, that still would be an enormous loss from the $209k down.  Additionally, since we've got a tenant in there for 6 months, that likely would mean selling to another investor who clearly would want a steep discount.  If we did a 1031, then we could not cash out anything, and that's a problem. We also can't take some money and then buy notes with the rest.  We can't refinance because we couldn't get anything like the 3.75% like we have.  We can't turn it into a note because there's a mortgage on the property.   Not crazy about taking a second because there's no idea when this crisis could end, and we don't want to take the chance of losing everything invested there.  

Any suggestions?  Thanks.

[Thomas S.]

It is uncertain as to why you are in a position of being financially responsible however if it is your decision to assist then you will simply need to do what you deem necessary. If you are determined to provide financial assistance then taking a loss on the sale of your property must be considered as part of that assistance. If you are not prepared to assist to that level then you have another decision to make.

Perhaps it would be better to try and get a personal line of credit as opposed to selling the property.

Your numbers however do not appear to add up. If you sell for $447K and sales commission is 6% you would get approximately $420K minus your present debt owing of $102 leaves you with $318 before any other costs. Since your DP was $209 I can not see how at a bare minimum you can not break even and you should clear a profit.

Personally I would be looking to sell for no other reason than the fact that rent to property value is sooooo low that there is no way this is even close to being a worthwhile investment.