Real Estate Investments Gone Bad!

[Zano Bailey]

My wife lives in Texas has a house and a townhouse in the Atlanta Georgia area that she purchased over 7 years ago prior to our married. The first house is  occupied by a tenant who was supposed to purchase it several years ago but has never been able to get financing. She has been paying below rents for the last 4yrs and my wife is afraid to raise the rent because the tenant keeps the house in good repair and my wife is scared she will move if she raises the rent even close to market rent. The townhouse is severely upside down to the tune of about $50k and the there are several new home being sold in the area for half the price.  To make matters worse she has an interest only mortgage on this property and now she has to use a large part of her monthly income for the maintenance fee and mortgage payment which is set to increase again next month. Both property values have been on a steady decline with no prospect of increasing any time soon.  Other investors have advised her to build a new stronger local (Texas) property portfolio and dump those two properties. My wife seems to now be "Investing shy" because of the to consecutive bad deals. She has talked to one financial advisor who gave her a plan that would have her basically working to pay the payments with little to live on for a very long time. Can some one give us some options on how to deal with these properties. All input will be greatly appreciated!

[Devan Mcclish]

@Zano Bailey As long as payments are being made, don't sell it. You could refinance it to a different loan. Get rid of the interest only loan, and get a conventional loan on it so you can start paying down principal, or keep the existing loan but make sure to pay down the principal. If you are losing money on it, write it off as a loss against your income, and go buy a deal to offset the loss, don't take the ding against your credit. I would raise the rents to market value on that tenant. If It's market value, she will realize she can't go anywhere else to get something cheaper. Remember you are you are investing in buy and hold properties for appreciation, stop focusing on that. You are investing for cash flow, are the properties cash flowing. 

Also, if that tenant buyer wants to buy sell it on a lease option, ask for 10k nonrefundable down payment. Use the 10k to buy another asset that cash flows better or use it to pay down the principal. I would suggest considering this for the other house too as long as you can meet the payoff.