It may sound funny to pay a 1031 exchange service to simply receive money for you and spend it for you, but it is essential. 

The foundation is so bad the house has shifted and I’m going to be spending nearly 40-50k to get this remediated.

Get to a point of having enough cash flow for me to spend less time on my job and more time with young kids in 5 years2.

One thing I did note is my insurance is $3K a year lower due to the monitored fire suppression system in these larger properties versus my smaller properties that sleep 12 or less built close to the same time.As someone who has lived in Illinois twice, the politicians there don't care if people burn as long as they can tax and spend. 

Are they holding the money, or are they spending it?

Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies who spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

Not spending money.  

But if they spend more than 5 minutes looking at the SB rental market, they will likely see that they are in a great situation and won’t fight too hard.   

Personal background: Married with no kids, 100% debt free, live a rather tame lifestyle and don't spend large amounts of money, two newer vehicles (2020 & 2024) so no vehicle purchases expected for the next 10 years. 

Enough” - “Your success as an investor will be determined by how you respond to punctuated moments of terror, not the years spend on cruise control”The Noticer: - “One way to define wisdom, is the ability to see into the future the consequences of your choices in the present.