Simply sit down with a lender. 

I’m sure it will be more difficult with this sitting at the top.I am going to file a small claims action against his guest for $10k and hope to just get them to remove the review and I will drop the case.

Sounds like its better to sit this one out.

That said, unless you're sitting on loads of cash or you're happy living on a shoestring budget for the next 10+ years, I have two recommendations on how to get to FI in 5-10 years:1) Dive in.

However, poor people don't volunteer as much to sit on city zoning boards.

We were tired of sitting on the sidelines, running numbers and never jumping in!

I also currently sit on about $50k in cash, and I have about $23k un-leveraged debt and a $17k loan from my IRA (yes, I know, I know) which I had used to buy my previous home.My question then, how can I best make use of this?  

When you buy a condo/townhouse, do you own the surrounding land that the property sits in top of (like the front yard), or do you just own the physical property itself?

Would you do nicer houses nationally pay them off completely hold no mortgages and sit on the cash flow?

@Jessica JaboorI'm sitting in my home office right now.