I would have done very well in those 2 years (essentially rent free living and appreciation would have covered most of my selling costs) and I ended up living there for 5 years. 

They each have Roth-IRAs.As we get older rents will increase, mortgages will start to go away one by one, and we will have access to better cash-flows.No need to save for retirement, as we essentially are retired at this point, and living off the rental income without having to touch the retirement accounts, as was the point of this post... and we maxed out IRAs and 401k early on, so those have enough basis in them that they don't really need any future contributions to balloon into awesome assets by traditional retirement age.I don't necessarily want to Die with Zero... but to keep the Golden Handcuffs of my W2 on till I reach $10M sounds like a very unnecessary waste of my life based on fear.I appreciate your point of view, and I know there are risks involved, just yesterday I met with a roofer to put a new roof on one of my units, but I've checked my historic repair costs, future potential capex projects, and done my best due diligence to move forward towards a life of freedom on my terms.Here is a closer look at our personal finances if anyone is curious, also we have access to $300k in HELOCs that are unused:$285 per year for kids activities for 5 kids?

That sounds hard, really hard, without the traditional upsides provided by owning real estate (tax benefits, appreciation, leveraging and loan payoffs, etc).Unlike a lot of the MTR forum posters, I actually do like arbitrage as a tool to have in the toolchest, but I think it has a very narrow use.

Stessa, for example, is excellent for tracking income and expenses, but it doesn’t offer tenant screening or lease creation—so while it’s great for financial management, it’s not a complete management tool.

Makes the cash flow tougher as well when you essentially have two loans on the place.I do like the idea of getting some exposure to RE though.

Essentially you need to be able to show and prove your intent to treat the property as an investment property.

Members here have given great tips on tenant screening, setting up tools for rent collection, and more.

You’d essentially be house hacking your way into a better living situation.I’d avoid a cash-out refi that 3.125% rate is gold.

@Robert Ellis Using a Self-Directed IRA (SDIRA) for real estate investing can be a powerful wealth-building tool—but you're right, it comes with strict rules and a learning curve.

Now that the laws were introduced, it essentially removed 99% of the investors who were texting.