So each recession seemed like an adjustment rather than a long term decline.  

Cashout refi seems to be a cheaper way to capture the post-appreciation equity before the next recession takes it away, compared to:1.

In the Great Recession, I saw large cabins selling for 25% of what they sold for just 2 years prior.  

For someone that's not as conservative, or a different view on the cycle, they might have a different opinion than me on all of this.2) Sponsor quality check: (takes about 45 minutes per deal)I believe that a great sponsor can take an average looking deal and make it great, and that in mediocre sponsor can take a fantastic looking deal and make it bad (especially if there is a severe recession).

Houses are no  longer intrinsic, and should've never been if it wasn't for the inflection point of a housing-centric recession + low rates. 

The underlying fundamentals that drive returns for real estate investors are (low) supply and (high) demand, population growth, high paying jobs (ideally in diverse industries for maximum recession resistance), affordability and desirability.

For now, we were toying with flips, brrrrr, buy and hold, multi, even construction of multi, but... the numbers just do not add up in this market, so we are waiting... who knows for what... great deal or recession...

Our track record of over 36% IRR to our investors is hard to match in this industry or any other (and that includes two recessions, unlike most of the currently active syndicators in our space).

It was just a very shallow recession. 

Should I sell the investments (pretend we're in a non-recession normal stock market environment), and payoff the rental?