Apartment worth less than current HELOC payoff deal.

[Anne Laurenzi]

I received a call from a seller that has an apartment she wants to sell. Her current mortgage payoff is about 15k but she has a HELOC that she got back in 2008 and the payoff amount of about 42k (I think she used some of the HELOC for repairs and some of it to buy a mobile home somewhere else that she currently lives in). Currently her apartment needs about 5-7k in work and is probably only worth about 45k after that work.

I know this is a total walk away situation, but I want to try and help her out the best I can. She just wants to be out and done with it, even if she doesn't make any money. She even offered to continue to pay the mortgage amount (I told her that that wasn't really an option because I would have zero repercussions if she stopped paying). I asked if she could get a loan from family or friends to pay down the HELOC enough to sell but no dice. Any thoughts on creatively trying to make this work somehow?