What most people do in your scenario, is they sell the home and purchase a 2-4 unit.

The issue you run into with Section 8 is that those people live like savage animals.

Some people say buy the location and it doesn't matter the cash flow because appreciation.

@Tip MallickI think there is an international forum but not that many people invest internationally here and probably even less in Thailand anyway.It depends on your objectives (we all have different ones) but didn't you already answer your own question?

Taking out a HELOC against your primary residence only makes sense if your investment will yield enough profit to cover the carrying costs of the HELOC, Closing Costs and incidentals.

I mean I would just use some common sense here. 4% interest rate for 30 years?

So the follow up question is, does it make sense to keep a property for that long and not dig into its equity for 21 years?

When people say I am going to do the renovations myself, they usually mean doing everything without proper permits and then they get screwed when they go to sell.If you can find a house hack where the side you will live in needs cosmetic, direct replacement (no permits) work, that would be ideal because you can do both by living in and soft-flipping your side while getting income on the other.

There is a TON of need to long term rentals in Tahoe, but a lot of people here can't afford really expensive rentals.

Your journey is two part - accumulate more wealth, and then how you are going to move it onto your kids - both have substantial tax planning opportunities.Given you mentioned your primary motivation is taxes, a HUGE caveat you should keep in mind is that no matter what real estate investment you make, first and foremost it should make good business sense.