The amount you receive from ordinary income (401k distributions) is combined with your social security (after you start collecting) and due to its ordinary income status, can cause you to pay taxes on SSI....reducing your available income at the whim of the government....in retirement when you don’t have many options to generate income in a typical retirement situation.If you’re working a W2 for a while, and investing in your 401(k) at the same time-getting the match-you’ll be contributing to social security taxes today, and will be “entitled” (ie, forced to take) them later.Also, a lot of 401(k)s have 1.5%+ fees in the generic options...enriching Wall Street to almost as much as yourself with “free money”.I recommend you read “The Power of Zero” by David McKnight and “401(k)aos” by Andy Tanner.

@Jesse Mao Green laser level is used inside?

With a residential property don't you have to put the property on stilts or bring in fill and compact it until the 1st floor level is at or above the zone base flood elevation?

I want to go to the next level- I just don't know how. 

Your income level is above the threshold for Net Investment Income Tax which kicks in another 3.8% tax on investment incomeetc, etc, etcThe job of the accountant is to explain this to you and see if there are ways to mitigate it.

At the moment I’m on track to buy 2-3 properties a year but it sounds like my income level is significantly less than yours.

Yes, the exclusion applies at the parent’s level. I

I have put them in but using not the cheapest, base level. I

The lower level is brick.

The only difference is whether or not you'd be able to offset against your ordinary income...and that's also assuming your income level is under a certain amount (my apologies if I'm pointing out something you already know).As for syndications, as long as we are talking about equity purchases of commercial property and not debt or some of the other fancy syndications out there like secondary market litigation or insurance, you will have very large passive losses starting from your first year.