Background:

38 y/o male. High income IT Management. MBA, no student loan debt (paid off), average paid off car. Sitting on about 800K cash and 900K equity between four properties, 3 of them rentals (I sold a couple). Net worth is about 1.7 million. In another year I'll have enough money to pay off all of them IF I elect to do so. If I keep working and houses keep trickling up as slowly as they have been, I should hit 2 million net worth by 40

Net profit is about 48K a year between principal pay down and cash flow with all 4 of the houses rented (I moved into the cheapest of them after I sold my primary). With the 800K invested I'd have a SWR of 32K a year on top of that rental income at 4% a year, bringing my total income from passive sources to 80K a year.

I can either:

A) Keep the cash and wait for buying opportunities in stocks and real estate, although I don't think we will see as big a crash again for a loooooong time.

B) Keep buying now while interest rates are low and let time and inflation raise my rental income, while prices likely slowly tickle up and have occasional ups and downs (cash flow is more important than net worth).

C) Pay them all off to reduce my risks and pull down 80K a year after all expenses (vacancy, capex, insurance, property taxes, etc.)

D) Leave them as is and still make 80K a year passively in a much more tax advantaged way.

With any of these above options I can either choose to keep working or retire, except for option A and B which require W2 income.

No I didn't inherit any money. I moved out at 18 and paid for my own schooling, rent, food, etc. I bought my houses almost entirely at the bottom of crash prices, with maybe 3 exceptions. (some of which I've since sold).

The temptation to grow the portfolio is strong, and in many ways that's a good move to make to grow the wealth far more and faster at that. But there is a part of me that's saying, you can pull down 80K a year (I made about 300K last year and live like I make 36K a year gross so 80K a year is still mostly going to savings for me I live below my means so 80K is POSH for me) and be completely debt free and not have to answer to work if I elect not to...No risk of bank calling the loans, etc.