Single family home (former rental) for sale in slow market

[Vaughn J Smith]

I would like to start off by saying thank you all for providing such a wealth of knowledge on this site and via the podcast. This is my first post and it definitely will not be my last. A couple months ago i was directed to the bigger pockets podcast by my twin brother Derek. The more i listen to the podcast and the more i read the forums, i realize how much i did not and do not know about buy and hold investing. I purchased my first home in October 2008 in Las Cruces, New Mexico after accepting a career with the federal government. Just based off of the year alone i am sure most would agree, it was really bad timing. The location being Las Cruces, New Mexico was yet another sucker punch that has negatively impacted my ability to do much with the property. Las Cruces is a small college town (home of the New Mexico State University Aggies) with healthy population of federal government workers and military contractors. When I moved from Las Cruces to Phoenix in 2014, the property was valued at about 18k less than what i paid for it 6 years prior. With zero equity in the property I decided to rent it to a long term tenant. Initially after management fees, repairs and PMI i was losing about $250 per month. I actively worked to pay down the mortgage so i could stop wasting money on PMI. After i reached the 20% mark, i was pretty much breaking even on the property after expenses. Not having kids, the property served as a write off as i had moved into an apartment in Phoenix. 18 months after moving to Phoenix i purchased a single family home in which to live in Scottsdale, AZ. In September of 2019 i accepted a promotion with the federal govt and moved to Washington, DC. The market in Las cruces had rebounded a bits i decided i would not renew my lease with the tenants and would put the house on the market. I invested about $4000 in paint, tile, repairs etc to get it ready to be shown. Again, timing couldn't have been worse as i was in the middle of a move and the house went on the market at the end of October. It has been shown several times but unfortunately it went on the market right before the holidays. My plan was to sell the property and invest the equity into a multi-family property that would actually cash flow. The dilemma i have now is that its been vacant since September 1st and I have been carrying the mortgage. I figured what better place than the bigger pockets forum to ask if maybe I'm not thinking of all my options. I could very easily rent the property again but my plan was to sell it and use that cash for the next investment. My home in Scottsdale is currently tenant occupied and cash flows about $200 per month and has about 100k in equity. my plan is to get a HELOC on the Scottsdale home and use that to invest in the next property. I started to think, why not rent the Las Cruces property to another long term tenant and get a HELOC from that property as well. I have about 60k in equity in the Las Cruces property. What would you do in this situation?