I guess an appreciation play would be the only thing that makes sense over here.

That is our Bible or road plans for repositioning value plays in good hard working blue Collar areas of Ohio.  

These all play into the "type" of investment we wanted to do.We are in Iowa where December thru March can be cold and windy. 

I think the bottom line is that he played fast and loose with our money.

It's hard to harvest equity on these plays, unless you commit, long-term, towards very light leverage, as the only practical ways to benefit from the equity in your portfolio, if you plan to never sell it, only exchange it, for a lifetime, are to spend the cash flow, or cash out refi.

I give it ten or so years before we start seeing this play out. 

They are too close for comfortable game play.

@Tom HallAt 7% if you can I would pay it down as investing it net after tax gains may not get you the 7% you are paying - so it’s less riskDownside is you lose liquidity of that money as it’s tied in your propertyIf rates come down in future you can refinance and even take some of the cash out.Regarding your question are rates coming down, a lot of factors come into play but right now it does not appear there will be significant changes to rates over next 3-6 months.

Play with your numbers and see what a deal that works for you looks like. 

And a single or double play is awesome.