You have to pay taxes on ALL that profit, it doesn't matter what you intend to do with it later.What you're thinking of is something that only C-Corp or S-Corp companies can do, and involves dividing the company's profits up into salary, distributions, and retained earnings, which are taxed differently.Regarding investing in stocks and then pulling your money out of those to buy real estate, the tax man has already thought of that too.

@Roy Oliphant  I know its totally counter intuitive.. but most of my best deals have been when I insist that sellers retain an attorney to represent them in the transaction.. this on its face at least in our states takes any issue with unconscionable profit off the table. .. and of course a lot of what I do is development land and we can double or triple properties values in as short as 120 to 360 days with an approved plat or knowing where zoning is going to change as was the case in this one were we made a big hit.. and it could go the other way .. recession no one wants to buy dirt and we lose our ***

All contracts that get to closing are retained in file, 3 to 7 years by the closing agent.

National insurers have lawyers all over the place on cheap retainer that can spit out a couple of claim letters and file in local courts to try to recover damages. 

@Mike Cumbie I think this is demonstrating why I do not retain realtors to find tenants.

And do I need to file a "statutory forcible entry and retainer" action in order to do that?

I've been surprised that many managers say they will collect AND retain all late fees, pet fees, as well as 50-100% of any retained security deposits!

Our cleaner isn't on retainer or anything, so its task based.

If that is the case it is a good rule of thumb to keep a six month cushion in their for your business (formally named Retained Earnings). 

Because of that, the half acre she retained was sent to probate and left to her five heirs.So we had five people who had claim to half an acre and no idea who owned the other half.