Wanted to start a thread and hopefully gain some insight into folks who have purchased automotive dealership lot/store fronts and leased them out? 

Most of them have appreciated by over 35% in the last four years, providing us with solid equity gains.

FL appreciation - property is still fairly newish and don't want to miss out on potentially solid capital appreciation in next 5-10 years - assuming that happens-Other caveat is ability to sell in coming few months without paying any capital gains taxes, which will not always be the caseThere is no crystal ball, Appreciation is/was the goal but who knows if that will happen and at what rate realistically with increasing costs of ownership here.

We have a PMI of $250 a month and I’d love to get rid of it.I contacted the bank for a request for PMI to be lifted and they denied it.They said I could order an assessment of the house through them and then if house / condo come up with enough gained equity then it might be possible .Does anyone know the best first initial steps to order a home assessment ?

And those deals turned out to be huge equity gains 10 years later for sure. 

I am going to have to wait but I’m eager to get started with the specialized knowledge I’ve gained.  

Mine is heavier towards real estate due to gains of the past few years.

@Adolphus Fletcher Like others have mentioned, gaining a non-recourse loan is a challenge unless in some cases where the loan is a commercial style loan of $5MM+ and the borrowing entity has strong income & assets to satisfy the lender's concern tied to the guarantee of the loan.

Sell home: ideally avoiding capital gains tax by living there for 2 of the last 5 years2.

You'll pay capital gains tax on the gain on the sale.