Experiened, but struggling REI - Advice needed

[Justin Pumpr]

Hey all,

I'm seeking some advice/input to help me work out what's next for me. Some background:

I got into REI to earn enough income from rentals to replace my W2. That journey started in 2016 when I bought a duplex to house hack. Using the equity I built up in that property I got a HELOC and started investing remotely out of state. My first property was a SFR that I BRRRR'd. This seemed to go well and I got it rented and cash flowing pretty well. I then bought another SFR, a couple of duplexes, a 4-plex and invested as a partner in a 13 unit. After that I bought another SFR to BRRRR and then is when things started to go wrong.

- The SFR had huge foundation issues. What was supposed to be a $30k rehab, turned into a $75k one. I had to sell this because it wouldn't cashflow. I took a $40k loss on this.

- To make up for that loss I bought a property to flip. That property was also supposed to be a few month flip, but I had to fire my contractor who I'd been working with on all my properties. I finally got the work done, but didn't get any offers until recently. I got it into contract and then had a huge plumbing failure during the home inspection. That property is now looking like a $100k loss. 

- The 13 unit I went in on has been almost 2 years and still hasn't had the framing inspection passed

- All my taxes doubled on my rentals, so now my cash flow has plummeted. 

- I've had multiple vacancies, including one where the tenant left after a year and cost me $6k in turn costs. This was only cashflowing $250/month

- I ended up selling the 4 unit for breakeven because that was a money pit

- I've also spent the last year underwriting larger multifamily properties. I've underwritten hundreds of deals, submitted tens of LOIs and not had a single one accepted

- The BRRRRs I did do weren't true BRRRRs because of low appraisals, or not accounting for all costs properly and I ended up leaving around $10k for each one in the deal. Multiply that by 8 properties and that adds up quickly

At this point I've amassed around $150k in debt, I'm spending hours a day trying to find large multifamily properties with nothing to show for it and the whole passive income dream I was sold seems to be a huge lie. My wife and I earn over $350k a year in our jobs and all of that is now going to pay down debt.

We have the option to increase our HELOC to unlock some more capital which I'm considering doing to try and get a good return on my money and pay down the debt faster, but given past experiences I'm not convinced it won't end up with more debt.

What would you do at this point? Sell it all and start over? Sell it all and give up on REI altogether? Keep going and learn from my mistakes?

Any advice and input welcome!