Best scenario in my opinion with the least headaches could be to sell that home and move the equity into a 400K home that is paid for in full, this will elevate a lot of stress and give him time to retool and overcome the rotten economy forced upon us. 

Even the bumpy roads along the way are fun after I overcome them.

Banks are risk adverse and will only give you so many before they cut you off.

I have been in this game for 3 years now and I love studying real estate and learning, and since I started, I've overcome false beliefs and acquired new mindsets.

A lot of people are interested but not committed to fight the adversity.

I would not be surprised if the next 5 years are flat (or even decline a little).I think the plan may work out, but I would not ever refer to it as low risk (it is higher risk than my RE risk tolerance which I may be too risk adverse).Good luck

if so, how did you overcome this obstacle. 

Any real estate strategy can be slimy when it's done by folks with little to no education, ethics, morals or cash to overcome foreseeable issues.

It all depends on how quickly we overcome and recover from COVID-19.

So as I've overcome challenges, I've documented how to do that and created content and courses to help agents be successful faster than I was.