Saved a bunch in interest (roughly 85K) at the cost of HELOC interest (foretasted total of 3.5k) and forfeited interest income on the savings (minimal). 

In our case, our lease specifies that if a tenant wants to break the lease early, they are required to pay three months’ rent as a penalty and forfeit their security deposit.This approach helps cover the costs of finding a new tenant and any potential loss of income while the property sits vacant.

The contract I could find says the following:```...together with the right of ingress and egress at all times for the purpose of mining, drilling and exploring said land for oil, gas and other minerals, and removing the same therefrom.And said above described land being now under an oil and gas lease originally executed in favor of [Oil Company], Chicago and now held by [Oil Company] it is understood and agreed that this sale is made subject to said lease, but covers and includes of all the oil royalty and gas rental or royalty due and to be paid under the terms of said lease.It is agreed and understood that of the money rentals which may be paid to extend the term within which a well may be begun under the term of said lease is to be paid to the said [purchaser], and in the event that the said above described lease for any reason becomes cancelled or forfeited, then and in that event, the lease interest and all future rental on said land, for oil, gas and mineral privileges shall be owned jointly by [owner] and wife and [purchaser] each owning & interest in all oil, gas and other mineral in and upon said land, together with interest in all future rente.This sale is made for and in consideration of the sum of Ten Dollars, cash in hand paid, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged.To have and to hold the above described property, together with all and singular the rights and appurtenances thereto in anywise belonging unto the said [owner] heirs and assigns forever, and we do hereby bind ourselves, heirs, executors and administrator to warrant and forever defend all and singular the said property unto the said [purchaser] heir and assignee against every person whomsoever lawfully claiming or to claim the same or any part thereof

Hey @Elizabeth Lark,As mentioned in some other responses, one of the superpowers of real estate is its tax treatment, and you are forfeiting powerful strategies when you hold them in a retirement account as you describe.

I requested via certified mail that my security deposit be returned, but he said that it was forfeited due to a clause in the lease that said it was forfeited if any provision of the lease was violated, in this case not staying the final month.

After 18 months I still didn't have a building permit and decided to cut ties with the builder and forfeit my deposit. 

I once had a situation where a client’s appraisal came in way below the expected value, and the numbers just didn’t work anymore, so we had to forfeit the deal entirely.

If you've given the tenant a discount, you've lost income.If you are going to offer a discount for a full year of rent paid in advance, I recommend you have an attorney draw up a strong clause that says the tenant forfeits the discount if they leave early. 

In my research, default rates are pretty high amongst 401ks loans. 5) If you leave your employer and want to rollover your remaining balance to an IRA to be able to invest in real estate, known as a self-directed IRA, you have to either A) Payoff the loan first, or B) When you rollover funds, the loan balance will be immediately distributed to you, thus taxes and penalties, and you forfeit all that tax-advantaged money back in the account. 6) 401ks are generally covered under federal ERISA rules, which affords you additional creditor protections, from outside of the 401k judgments.

We also signed an agreement that if the tenant couldn't move in by the date agreed upon they would forfeit the holding deposit.