He had just turned 68 & intimated that he cannot afford to retire.

If you could go back in time, to the start of your investment journey, what would you tell your younger self?

If you could go back in time, to the start of your investment journey, what would you tell your younger self?

I've had issues with this particular CPA taking 3-4 weeks to respond to emails and generally giving off the cuff, not researched, and flat out wrong tax planning advice.Anyway, I had a partially failed exchange (Realty Doctors promised they have NEVER missed a clients exchange, and lo and behold their builder couldn't build the 2nd property in time).My only gains are a $102K undeferred gain on the property I sold, and a single K-1 syndication exit where I invested $50K and got a $30K profit.When I look at the draft return, my capital gains from the sale of my home are being added to my AGI and I'm having to pay ordinary income taxes on sale of a long term capital gains asset.

Better to be pleasantly surprised by additional cash flow than disappointed by a higher expense. 

How much are you willing to spend in time, effort, money and in frustrating the heck out of the tenant between now and March 2022? 

It takes more time to recover from a mistake although in time, things tend to work themselves out.

Even factoring in time, I often see syndications out performing direct projects as the scale and leverage syndications can provide and the power of full time real estate professionals managing the investment as opposed to someone managing a few rentals on the side as a more or less hobby. 

If I pass, check to make sure my criteria are still the same, say a pleasant goodbye, then call the next person on that list.

The problem is OOS you can't compete with locals on the ground who are intimately familiar with the market, tenant base, contractors, Realtors, and may even self manage.