You must have sufficient reserves to survive in the REI business.

With that being said, as @Gerald Harris mentioned an investor might take a loss for tax purposes. 

The bottom line is a house is a real object, that people actually need in good times or bad for survival from the elements.  

That is a 50% increase in a short amount of time - almost impossible to accurately predict.This is a tough game to game to survive in long-term.  

Many, many people survive on that and find ways to have fun, complete fulfilling lives.The other advantage of saving and living a frugal lifestyle, is that it reduces the total amount of savings needed to retire AND MAINTAIN YOUR LIFESTYLE.If you have a 45,000 lifestyle, in theory with a 4% withdrawl rate, a portfolio of only 1,125,000 is sufficient to sustain that lifestyle.If you are living large with an 80,000 lifestyle - you need 2,000,000 to sustain it.at 120,000 - you need 3,000,000So, if you make 65, and live like 45, you can quickly get to 'financial independence'.If you make 140 and live like 120 (same 20k difference) it will take you much longer to be financially independent.The 4% safe withdrawl rate is pretty well accepted and has been studied a lot.

Originally posted by @Harry Zhou:  Great post.

Do the surviving partners get that investor’s shares or do they have to deal with relatives that may be ignorant and/or greedy?

Over the past couple of weeks, I think I've heard the Mantra "Survive Until '25" from 5 different authorities....a couple of lenders and probably 3 syndicators.

I did it my way (Frank Sinatra):) But anyway I survived and I made multi-millionaire many years ago through real-estate.  

If taxes go up a little bit - we will survive.