Real estate might still be the least-worst thing to be invested in right now.There's also the very real possibility of higher inflation - the Federal Reserve is actively targeting higher inflation so as to make the huge amount of both government debt and household debt out there more manageable.

Not sure what happened in your area your talking about, but I own a story and a 1/2 that was built by the government after wwII and we've renuavated it beautifully.

I confirm everything with the governing entity.

As a fellow North Carolinian, in addition to most of the comments above, I'd recommend you check out our state law governing contract for deeds.

It's with the government.

Actions define the application of the law.Of most importance, can you afford to defend yourself in a lawsuit should a seller, buyer, licensed real estate agent, real estate company, lender, local government agency, or a state government agency sue you for your actions?

I see where you have referenced tax penalties as your basis, we are not the government nor can you tie any justification in lending to what the government gets away with.I suppose the initial issues Dion pointed out still exist.

From something as small as the marginal brackets changes to something as large as the government deciding not to allow interest deductions or changing depreciation schedules, you never know what can happen over 5, 10, 15, or 30 years.These are the big reasons why many investor completely ignore the tax implications of their investments -- there are too many unknowns and if anything, the tax implications are likely to be worse in the future than they are today, so if you factor today's implications into the equation, your actual results are more likely to be worse than that, not better.

According "Rich Dad" if you cant file a 1031 it would be considered 50/50 income (50 percent for you 50 percent for the government) Also I do all my deals under my LLC.

Everybody does have their hands out especially the city government.