It also offers a chance to shift into something more passive, reducing the hands-on management that seems to be more of a hassle now that you’ve moved.That said, the rental income potential from your properties is worth noting, but there’s a limit to how much you can boost your cash flow, especially after already making significant upgrades.

Focus on tax-saving strategies such as cost segregation studies and bonus depreciation to accelerate deductions.By qualifying as a Real Estate Professional (spending 750+ hours annually and materially participating), you can offset your wife’s S-Corp income with real estate losses, reducing your tax liability.

We certainly have found some deals that would reduce our living expenses compared to renting.

We had good capital gains on our first new property so we were able to inject that in our current primary residence reducing mortgage amount.

This reduces your housing payment and helps you build equity. 

In my opinion, it is better to get a property rented quickly (even if it means reduced rent) than it is to get it rented for the highest amount possible. 

You can also split the difference by looking at the historic energy usage for the property and setting that as a utility 'cap.'

. $360k equity (based on your estimated loan balance and estimated transaction costs if you sold, this is not calculating capital gains taxes but that would reduce your equity down to about $310k if you sold without doing a 1031 exchange). $8k cash flow (this will increase over time because you are in an appreciation market). $6k principal pay down (based on your current loan). $20k appreciation (based on 3% which is conservative, 4-5% is the historical average).

Especially as it relates to being able to rollover IRAs and old 401k money into a Solo401k.Self employment allows you to contribute large amounts to Solo401k to reduce FICA taxes.

If they don't have the energy to do 5 deal analysis, then they will want their hands held by the coach all the way thru and that won't work.