To house people and make a profit at it.To accumulate net worth in multi-family assets.To live a comfortable life.To have fun.To help others (in this business) if I can--a rising tide raises all boats.

Investing is building wealth over a period of time.Focus on making as much money as you can with your W-2 job and then dump some money into a LTR over a period of time.Put the money in slowly so you can get accumulated with your network(PM Company, contractor, etc) and then scale faster as you are more comfortable.Then after you accumulate some properties, determine if you can scale back your hours at work to go from Full-time to part-timebest of luck

For example if you sell for $1M and you have a basis of $500k and $250K of accumulated depreciation and you trade down in value to $650k, then $250k will be taxed at recaptured depreciation rates and $100 will be taxed at long term capital gains rate.  

I would borrow and repay on my 401K when I had a day job to accumulate more rentals.  

I've accumulated quite a few rentals in the city I live in, and the focus has always been cash flow, but I'm considering purchasing my first "vacation rental". 

Monthly auto deposit.My thinking is if I can invest and accumulate enough money for when the kids need to go to school, the repetition of saving will have created other income in other places and we won't even need the 529 plan to send them to college.Frank

Hi Justin,As a seasoned and accredited investor with a old RE and stock portfolio accumulated over a 40 year period I'm very comfortable staying in my own farm of the North San Diego Coastla, South OC and Sough Riverside area's including the Palm Desert/Palm Springs area. 

Great sharing of accumulated wisdom and actionable ideas.  

It seems that the 30-year loan would give me cash more quickly, which could then be used to accumulate enough for another down payment for another home purchase  in the not-too-distant future as well as to further prove to lenders that my income is substantial and stable enough to be able to pay back a home equity loan.Anyway, hopefully I didn't muddle things up, confuse facts, or not present enough details.  

I have much easier access to money now, but I also have a ton of respect for that and I will never ever abuse it.I will also say that, in spite of not doing a ton of deals, I have accumulated a significant amount of wealth.