3) is there another use for the property you can pivot to if all hell breaks loose?

I saw a ton of this in Mississippi the year i lived there.. then they get loose and roam wild.. you cant blame the dog its the owners.. is so sad..

Hi Saurabh...not having you home rented and loosing that potential rental income can be tough.  

Obviously everyone's situation is different but for me, I am more comfortable having debt than having cash sitting around loosing value for now.

You would likely loose your homestead exemption and therefore pay more property taxes.Also you would likely loose your personal property capital gains exemption which will cost you a ton more money.Also your lender might call your loan. 

Both of our jobs would be able to cover two mortgages if worst case came along and we loose a tenant but it’s still not desirable.Option 2: Selling the town home for a slight profitSo option two is easy in principle.

Once emotions are involved in the decision making, you loose.

We had the reserves that we were never in danger of loosing the property.I do not necessarily believe one recession will behave like the next. 

And yet others who only take on institutional capital, or have minimums of $500k+.The point being, that there are some technical differences, but at the end of the day they can very loosely be interchanged and often are. 

We know from previous recessions that tourism is the first industry to be hit when people start loosing jobs.