I have to agree. The gigantic income tax that I will have to pay is the only thing that stops me from cashing out.

However, I confess I bought a new house I didn't really want during the B induced inflation. I couldn't stand to watch my money losing so much value, so I plopped it into real estate.

I was invited to a lecture, speaker was the owner of the Century City Twin Towers. Most of the guest owned apartment buildings no small than 100 units a piece. I had one property that that sized, owned with 20 family members.

Several owners wanted to sell, but the taxes stopped them. Here in California, besides up to 20% in federal taxes, the State tax could reach 13.3%, plus a 2.9% medical tax if income reaches over 1/4 mil for the year.

So I made one guy an offer. He could sell the me, carrying back the first mortgage, with a 20-29% down payment, making this an installment sale. On the principal, only after around 12-15 years would the monthly principal start growing, and the monthly interest would be taxed at their income rate.

So the down payment would be taxed at 25%, the recapture rate for depreciation. The interest income would be taxed at this tax rate,

and the principal payment wouldn't really kick in for a decade.

Making interest on the tax money he didn't have to pay for the next 10-30 years. Making almost double the income from a straight sale. Plus no sales commissions.

He was just scared if thing collapsed and he'd have to take back the property. I offed him a 5 year Bond on the balance. This way he couldn't loose.

I decided this back in 2017. I committed to selling every property that became vacant unless I was filling it with a former tenant who I was already familiar with or with someone whose character I knew well. I’m down to 10 from 38. I also gave two away for tax reasons (one to my son and one to my daughter). Son uses his as his residence, daughter uses hers as a rental.

I no longer wanted to take a risk with unknown people, getting too old for that nonsense. As such all my existing tenants have been with me 8 years to 20 years.

So, NE: Will he sell them to you with seller financing? Probably a good chance you work a deal, once the knows you can make a go of it & keep his payment going every month. If you want to buy, that sounds like an excellent opportunity.

in my county before covid, u can evict someone in under a month, start to finish; since covid they added more steps and mandatory medication etc; any way to screw the landlord and take money out of their pocket.

Agree with others and nail in the coffin was c19 where many renters thought that life would be free as the government stepped in and paid them inflated unemployment benefits.

In many cases more than they would earn actually working. They spent the inflated unemployment benefits on cruises, fancy electronic, Vehicles Etc. They spent none of it on actual bills and rent.

The inevitable inflation followed and now we have I would say the majority of renters being unrentable especially in Blue State rust towns. The chickens have come home to roost by way of terribly low credit scores, bad rental history, attitude of irresponsibility.

LLs have been moaning about renter decline, prices too high, tenant friendly courts, and hard to find good help since I started in 1977.

One reason is WE are better. My screening checklist now has 19 points to check, most thru recently available technology, AND I am way picky-er.

I DO agree a shift in renter attitude, esp since the pandemic, but good people are still "out there". WE must adapt our methods to help them find us and us, them.

I also agree help is harder to find. Local factories will take any warm body - no drug tests, health ins, and $XXXX signing bonuses. We used to get those who did not qualify or want factory work.

In just the past week I lost my roofing / siding crew. They believe the police are using license plate readers to track for ICE. Nearby military base is being outfitted for detainees. They are hiding at home rather than working.

I am selling homes as they come open, mostly because BUY LOW SELL HIGH, I've made a fortune, and I don't want to be doing this at 85. How much more money do I need? Surviving cancer changes your priorities!

(Life's too short to drive boring cars!)

I can still find renters (with more effort) and help.

Look at the newbies in your area. They are getting it done with the "new" set of circumstances.

BRAD

Some years ago I came across a web site that was dedicated to selling books called something close ,..HOW TO SCREW YOUR LANDLORD,..Among a number of books one was called exactly that,

OMG,... you better hope a tenant of yours never gets a hold of one/some of these books,..I ordered a few to see what I could be dealing with. These authors apparently hated LL's and found ways to really screw them.

I can't tell you exact name and authors as I gave mine to a fellow LL who is no longer,..but one of my tenants, according to her neighbor who told me that she had one. That tenant has been a nightmare, some of you know that story, including she hasn't paid since 2020,.and I have spent around 50k in lawyers fees.and she is still there.(lawyers recommended by my local LL's assoc that were best as evictions,

Might be worth it to you to get one/some of these books,..to see what you could be dealing with in the future.Would that knowledge have helped me? Well not the main tactic she used,..but some of the other things a tenant could use,,.if you recognize these tactics you might work certain things to get rid of them before they use their own things and hope you can defend yourself.The books are not expensive ,.or at least they weren't at the time.

I have to wonder exactly how much of this is because WE have improved over the years. I do see the trend, but what words come to mind?

"Oh Yeah, well that is nothing, back when I was starting......"

I was age 10 when I had my first beer with my grandpa. He bought a six pack and we sat down on his tail gate and he drank five of those and I had a hard time tasting that nasty beer, but it did make me feel special because it was with Grandpa. Five beers later, my granddad said something that still sticks with me today. "Your generation is raising hell, drinking, smoking, doing drugs, staying up all hours of the night having sex, hate and discontent. You know what is wrong with your generation?

I was waiting for the answer that would solve an entire generation.

"I am not part of it"