Newbie steps in it. And it's messy...

[Jj Horst]

Ok so the short story is my wife and I bought a duplex we were currently renting when the owner sold and were introduced into the magical world of house hacking and how great it was. WOW this is the way to go, how could it go wrong. We saved up about $30k and bought a second duplex a few streets down that was bigger, full of mold, and had a couple of tweakers living next door. again, what could go wrong?

We now live in the second duplex, after months of drama and legal BS we have evicted the tweakers who stopped paying rent in July. The first duplex is awesome and is rented to great tenants.

Did I mention my wife is was due for our first baby on Sunday? Baby coming any minute!

Tried to get HELOC on the primary residence with BofA after a lot of run around we aren't going to get it as we only have 20% equity after the appraisal ($400k). Bought the place for $328k. Side A is in pretty good shape after a year of work. Side B - Yeesh. It needs some love. (new kitchen, bathrooms if possible, new flooring, and definitely new electric panels.) Probably will cost $30k.

So my options are:

1. Continue to live here and leave side B empty. Its about $2800 a month 8 min from downtown austin tx. Fix things up here and there and maybe sell it in a year but MAN you're spending some money on housing.

2. Sell it an buy a single family - I could find something like a good 3/2 in the area for $255k, but that's it I'd be paying around $2k indefinitely no potential to rent out another side

3. Try and get it "liveable" for like...$15k. Might take one some credit card debt and risk having less than amazing people living next door but at least can rent for around $1300-1600. That takes a huge load off the monthly cost even if it means superhuman willpower to fix the place up with a new baby. Risk having to go through another eviction.

I hate to give up a piece of property near DT Austin TX and maybe torch my chances at early retirement ( would take years to save up enough to get another down payment as I work a normal job.)

I don't know BP community. What would you do in my shoes?

Extra info. My wife is tough as nails and I know she'll be down to take any path, that being said I think if it was up to here solo she would just sell the place and accept we'll be working our whole lives like everyone else.