Use your HELOC to purchase the duplex outright for $118K.Your brother’s $50K down payment can immediately go toward reducing your HELOC balance, leaving a remaining balance of $68K.Create a formal lease-to-own agreement with your brother.

  $80,000 per year, and reduced increments until you hit break even and have the bank covered. 

Manufacturing has gone overseas reducing wages. 4.  

A 7.0 releases some 32 times the amount of energy as the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima. https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/earthquakeI am fully aware and well versed. 

This can drastically reduce the property's value and cause unexpected headaches.I’m curious—what features do you prioritize when looking at short-term rentals?

Which is not easy for possible for many people (like your husband).Once you really know what to do, the risk level drastically reduces.

The only cost is your time, energy and focus.

We discovered problems that required a lot of work and significantly reduced the property’s value, forcing me to lower the price.

Before we sold it we hired a management company to reduce the burden, but even then we decided to sell and walk away. 

Building a network of agents, contractors, vendors, and tradespeople is something I've spent a lot of time and energy doing, and it is immeasurably valuable in being able to do this.