New member from Fairfax, VA

[John Pak]

Hello, my wife and I are about 10 years from retirement from our full-time jobs.  Our real estate goal is buy-and-hold rentals to provide partial income replacement upon retirement.

We currently live in a SFH with good equity and have 2 rentals, a townhouse and SFH, all in Fairfax, VA. We are looking to buy one or two more houses this spring/summer. We are working with a buyer's agent.

I joined BiggerPockets because I am starting to have questions about real estate that seem bigger than my experience thus far and don't seem to have a clear-cut "right answer."  After 11 years as a landlord, I am faced with issues that I weren't on my radar when I was just starting out-- what to do when a buy-and-hold investor has an excellent rental that needs major upgrades (roof, windows, kitchen, flooring); is it smart to covert to a rental a primary residence with lots of capital gains (and lose capital gains exclusion of primary residence); do you ever sell/1031 exchange a good-renting property for tax reasons and how do you figure that out; pull money out of a rental property with lots of equity or enjoy the cash flow?  

Thanks.  I will be busy reading up on the posts of interest, and if I can't find the answer to what I am looking for, I will post a question.