While personal loss is difficult and understandable, running a business that directly impacts property owners requires a contingency plan.

Congratulations on the duplex -My investor clients have acquired several multi-family investment properties locally in the market I operate in Northwest Indiana - Figure out your personal investment objective for the next 4 years and align yourself with the next property that make sense in this current market environment-

Personally that is what I wanted, an active mentor. 

Your personal loan has a 5 year balloon period.  

This means, on average, that this person is facing foreclosure or bankruptcy, and has no other reasonable options.

I personally would revisit your strategy of buying a negative cash flow property in SoCal, right now.

My personal opinion: he's not the only one "doing it right" but he's definitely on the very short list of those that are.Just my .02note: I don't participate in his deals.

The northland MAREI meeting and the main monthly meeting at MAREI have a minimal fee, or for $99 a year you can attend all of them for no extra charge - northland is in person, the main meeting is still online, both are great ways to connect and learn. 

Our short-term residential investment property loans are typically 60-80% LTV and all are personally guaranteed by the borrower(s) -- we pull credit, background and PFS on each guarantor, verify experience, verify liquidity, underwrite the property, neighborhood and zip code.

This is basically a math problem that will depend on both you personal finances & also how much of this is an investment vs you want a nice house to live in4.