Significant bumps in tax value can usually be attributed to properties being reassessed after trading, especially if the previous sale was some time ago. 

This is trading one job for another, but with the knowledge and experience you gain from this other job you can apply to investing buy-and-holds.Not sure which of those options is more appealing to you, but those would be the best 2 ways I see.

@Jim Hilera REIT by definition is publically traded.

That's when you could trade up, carefully.  

It wasn't until more recently that one off loan trades started to become viable.  

I would consider myself a jack of all trades when it comes to construction (and master of nothing as the second half of the saying goes).

At some point you have to make a decision, What am I willing to trade for my time?

So they trade their equity to be done with it.

So as a SF plan, the key to getting a good re-trade price on a loan made in equity is having that loan underwritten well.  

Those properties always trade with a huge risk premium built in, meaning that even though a property may be worth $xx @ a 7 cap and the rest of Toledo is trading at a 7 cap, properties in rougher areas seem to have a ceiling of about $25k per unit, no matter what the cash flow looks like.