So far, this has been an exciting, terrifying, but overall extremely rewarding experience.

Its about risk vs reward.If you are willing to take the risk to be the developer, then you can reep the rewards.  

Commercial can be a bit more complicated, but rewarding. 

It really interests me and has so far been a very rewarding experience.I am glad there are some other Minnesotans here.

Your return on equity is pretty terrible so I would advise you unlock some of the capital, either by selling or taking out a HELOC.I always like the idea of keeping a property and getting a HELOC because you get to reap the rewards of equity without sacrificing your cashflow or the long term benefits of holding property.

In a nut shell, higher risk = higher reward.  

As investors we know that there is risk, and that is part of the equation but to risk there should be the possibility of reward. 

I own my own numerous investment properties and have a general contracting license since I do renovations and it is required if you do more than 2 non owner occupied renovations in a 2 year period. 

Compared to a new syndicator that might have relatively smaller successes, you will have smaller returns, but that is right in line with risk/reward expectations.Hope this helps, happy soon-to-be retirement!

Home Depot does a cash back rebate, keep track of your purchases, and also have a gas rewards program and you can get additional savings by going through Pro Desk if you are buying over $5,000.