I am not rich but working at ensuring I can survive retirement.

Your pan would work with my vacation properties, but not very well with the rentals as most are fully depreciated and even after two years, I would still have to pay depreciation recapture (for almost the entire equity in the home).

As noted in my first post, I am likely better off keeping and collecting rent than selling and paying taxes. If I wanted to sorta cash out, I guess I could partially refinance one/all for cash out and spend that

Depreciated or not, you still get the 500k tax break if you lived in it for two years. Not paying 500K on cap gain is huge. What's the property worth, 1mil since they are in upper mid. class neighborhoods? Deducted some here and there, you are looking at 400K worth of cap gain if sold at 1 mil. That's better then getting hit for the complete amount. Change address if possible? Are you retired? If so, that would be easiest.

Pulling money out and spending it would be ideal, but you are on the hook for more payments and still have to deal with it. When I retired, it will hopefully run itself or my kids take over and enjoy the income. All ours are in the upper middle class neighborhoods on various cities in socal except for one in the up and coming hood near USC.

I am never selling, my kids will run it and hopefully I would have taught em' well enough so they can leverage it and grow it.

I have a few more house or income properties in me before I fully retire.

Nah, because the homes are not in California (or similar). Upper middle-class homes are still closer to 400K-600K in much of the country.

Yes, but under current law (closed that loophole) I would still owe the depreciation recapture. Here is an example. Let's say I moved back into a home for two years that I bought for $400K and then sold it for $600K. The $500K exclusion would apply on capital gains, but if I had fully deprecated it while a rental, I would still be liable for the depreciation recapture of $400K. It would be taxed at my regular income tax rate up to a cap of 25%. So, I would have to pay .25 x $400K or $100K in taxes despite the exclusion. The exclusion would save me capital gains on the remaining $200K of gain (not taxed as deprecation recapture). About $50K.

If the purchase price (and thus the depreciation amount) is low, it would be much better. For example, if I have a home that I paid $50K for and could sell for $400K that was similarly full depreciated. The two years residence would result in me paying taxes on $50K (or $12.5K) in recapture and the remaining $350K would be excluded saving about $80K in taxes.

Money is important, but what even more important is your sanity or happiness. If you got rid of it, will you be free from the responsibility or a load off your chest completely? Enjoy the money and pay the tax, be free and enjoy retirement? kids? How much longer do you want to do this and will you be bored if you have nothing to occupy your time with? You made your investment work for many years and gain much from it, now its time to suck it up and pay the piper. You already knew that from the get go. I realized from the beginning that I am only a transfer person(I started with one and built up from there) that my kids will benefit from them fully in due time. They should all mature in another 10-15 years but I will be hands off completely in 6-8 years. It will hopefully be a huge load off my chest. Who knows, I jsut might take money out and invest in something else and grow it from there. I have been sitting on the side line for about 8 years now without buying or trading anything and tell you the true, I am itchy to do it again now that my kids are teenagers and hope to teach them the ropes by having them buy and flip one and profit the money. Who knows?

Hey, Freddy, I wish you the best. Its a tough time especially dealing with dead beats. Lower class people suck.

This will do the total opposite of what it is intending. Without the ability to screen a tenant with data, people will go back to their feelings. I.e. in the past a minority applicant will get the place no problem if they have great income, credit report and references. With this in place it will be back to "feelings" only. Good luck with that.

George, let em' fook it all up and correction will take place and get rid of those in charge people will be so sick of this crap. It lo longer make sense. I am looking elsewhere to buy and hold at a place within 3-4 hours from you.

CA is all rent control now. IN LA county, we HAVE to take section 8 applicants. No if or buts.

Fred, how're things progressing? Did you get the tenant out?

They did not file an appeal, so we are good to go . I am pretty confident however, that the constable will have to see them out .
I have been crushed busy at work and still need to file the paperwork for the next step.
We just went live with another house listing yesterday . One step closer to leaving this mess behind me.
We have another tenant who has fallen 2 months behind . I am posting her door Friday night after work .
I am getting good at this !

Boy oh boy I don't miss this mess one bit.

Mebby something you can do in retirement, like to keep active and entertained.
and still make a buck doing it as a service to others.

For the most part it's just admin and time, it's not hard work to somebody who has plenty of time (being retired)

Until the government tells your tenant they don't have to pay you their rent and can't be evicted.

I know that, but there are people who make money , helping landlords with the process.
There's even a TV show in UK about it..

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8336918/

Especially landlords who aren't in the area, or have a full time job.. when stuck with a bad tenant, they need help getting them out.
in part that's legal eagle work.. but (not sure how it's in US) a lot of procedures are just filing the right papers and requests and can be done by agencies/consultants..

I've filed court procedures, i'm not a lawyer.
hell I've gone to court and pleaded a case against the DA.. and won.
DA fell off his chair when I asked the judge if he had any idea why the DA was so confused about his role in the procedings.. He offers a negative advice but all his arguments are supporting my case.
the Judge chuckled
I chuckled
the DA turned red.

That's good news, Fred. My brief experience as a landlord turned out alright. The property has nearly tripled in value and the tenants are moving out at the end of the month. The plan is to do some painting/repairs, sell it, pay off the mortgage on my home, and retire June 1. I already feel happier. You are walking a similar path.

Yeah, but then you owe them a favor in return....
https://64.media.tumblr.com/996b61de...n6vo4_500.gifv

fogettabouti