Lee hit the nail on the head that opportunity zone investing is the consideration for selling appreciated stock and deferring capital gain recognition for someday in the future.

I guess there are two other considerations: (1) a lot of time and effort goes into lead generation and (2) these sellers don't want to be passed off to other buyers.

@Juan M RestrepoHere are the general considerations regarding 401k loans.401k Participant LoansIf your 401k plan allows for 401k participant loans, the maximum loan amount is equal to 50% of the balance up to $50k.

If you don't need to have access to that capital, then your real estate consideration should include holding those homes for longer.

"Fast cash" might not be their primary consideration. 

***I also did a 0.5 mile search and the average sale price is (4bed/2bath) is $88000 (I didn't take into consideration the finishes, I'm not your realtor) Average days on the market is 122days (probably be longer now that we going into Xmas).

I know there was an appraisal in 2002 for $1.2M, but property values in that neighborhood have dropped considerably since then.

Maybe a different mentor is needed or maybe getting your RE license or getting a job with a RE company should be considerations.  

As a Broker, i can attest the market is hot, and prices in some areas are starting to rise, its not stupid yet, but the lending hasn't gotten stupid yet either. my outlook is one of 3 things, we are one "major event" (terrorist attack, war, natural disaster) away from a market shift, so far gas is rising post Houston, and all is silent about the North Korea missile.

As the other poster said if you sell you will most likely have a tax implication unless you do an exchange - which puts you back into the market and with the rising home prices in Las Vegas you are probably not going to be in as good of a position as you are now, if you bought it during the downturn.