Is it better to sell, pay off mortgage and capital gains and take the cash to invest in another property or is it better to refi/ETO and take the cash to invest in another property?

For flips, calculate the after-repair value (ARV) and subtract purchase, rehab, holding, and selling costs.Pay attention to location, rental demand, and the property’s condition.

.- If you hold a rental until death, you can pass it on with a stepped-up cost basis, limiting captial gains if then sold (limited by inheritance tax limitations).Too many newbies on this site trying to replace their day job income via "passive" real estate investing w/o digging deep enough to understand how it really works.

We are responsible for the mortgage as of January 1 - but it's come to our attention that they stopped paying it back In October 2024.

You have the ability to sell while limiting your capital gains tax because you lived in 2 of the last 5 years. 

I would focus my attentions here and try to stay local (within a 4 hour drive) as the POH rentals require more engagement.Financing is a tough deal... but sometimes you can find those Mom and Pop operations with quite a few POH rentals that will work with seller financing on a reasonable interest rate with a balloon within 5-7 years. 

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The opportunity cost of losing potential market gains in your retirement fund should also be considered.

If so, they can sell within 2 years and not pay capital gains taxes on the sell of the home.They could take that money and buy multiple rental homes in other areas if they wanted, or use the money to downsize in to a different home while still having money left over.

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