Even though I live in Charlotte, I've spent a lot of time doing loan mods and short sales in places like New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, California, and Illinois, and have seen the possible trap of only being in one area.I've seen landlords who were intensely renting in a certain geographical area get decimated due to the changes in the marketplace in their locality.

Cash flow is about $250 per month, but I currently have about $140k in trapped equity in the property.

I would warn to be wary of choosing the lowest monthly rate, that is often a huge trap. 

There are a few mentions of it on Bigger pocket forums, but I'm still not getting the whole picture.I found a comprehensive course by William Tingle for $297, but I'm leary about paying much for courses anymore since I've fallen into the trap of paying thousands of dollars on courses, seminars, boot camps, coaching, and mentoring.Does anyone know if this course contains quality information and resources on this subject?

@Garrett Gahn - lots of different schools of thought, but you could put that equity to work instead of it being trapped.

However, you will need to make sure that your losses will escape the passive loss limitations, meaning you need to change the default behavior of Sch E.Showing material participation can be a trap.

Just noting that everything you wrote and have done so far is great - just be careful not to fall into the "analysis paralysis" trap and overthink before diving in! 

So, this reply was more to avoid having other people unwillingly fall into that trap than it was a reply to you specifically.

Additionally, a sale would not affect their credit and having cash would give them flexibility and a stronger tool than trapped equity.

The tsp is just icing on the cake.I don’t like the premise of my money being trapped in an account until I’m 59.