How to protect equity from next crash?

[Jack B.]

I thought commercial properties would do it since they are valued by their NOI/cap rate, but I hear that's not the case since the cap rate fluctuates as the economy expands and contracts, thus also affecting commercial property values.

So what is one to do? Pay hundreds of thousands in taxes to the feds and repurchase after a down turn (years from now, not talking about current economy) or watch their property values decline by a million or two by holding onto them? One is the lesser of the two evils, but there has to be a better way...

Cash out refinance and hold onto the cash until a down turn and dollar cost average as the market goes back up? DST?

Key thing is I want to protect all the equity that I've built up, and have the ability to get cash out or use existing cash on hand to repurchase when there is another crash.

Another option is to cash it all out into a 100 unit apartment complex which I also move into, retire, live off the cash flow and wait for the market to recover again. FI and long term wealth...

Thing is I'm sitting at a cool million right now and am looking at 2 in 4 years or less. I want to turn that 2 million into 4, then 4 into 8, etc.