Also, I sold my new washer/dryer set at a loss of almost $600 as the lease was for three years (when he signed the lease in 04/2019) and he also promised to leave his set at the end of the lease as he wanted to keep his set for their time.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

You are paying them to live in the house.1 - Mortgage payment = $2500/month;  $30,000/year2 - Rent from them = $1500/month;  $18,000/year3 - Net result = -$1000/month;  -$12,000/year4 - 50/50 split = each of your pays half of the loss/month 5 - Your cost/loss = $500/month; $6000/yearReturns on Investment:Brother and Wife get to save $6,000/year (thanks to you paying half of #3), that if they didn't have you as a sister, they would be paying. 

I'm originally from North County, San Diego myself and found the Indianapolis market feasible to hit my REI goals.The easiest way to get started OOS is by networking - join groups on Facebook or otherwise, even Reddit, that are specific to the location you're researching; see what the locals are saying about certain neighborhoods, vendors, lenders, etc. are saying.

Hopefully they can handle the influx, so people who suffer losses because of this can eat and have shelter.If this thing runs on for some time, we're all going to have just hunker down and ride it out.Just my 2 cents.

If you could leave the deal with no financial loss, I probably would.

There’s a difference between having less of something (stock losses) and none of something (destroyed debt via default)Make no doubt, this one’s gonna hurt.  

Loan officer says, 'We don’t want to miss the closing date as the rate market for investment properties is not feasible.

Pulled all the money last week, might need it for the mortgages and my job loss (which did happen).

Do I sell the house and just take the losses, then try to rebuild my cash reserves to put a down payment on a new property?