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Hi Gordo, Hope you don't mind me asking you a question? I am 58 yrs old with rental properties (9 in total). Small mortgages on 6 of them. I am hoping these will be my pension. Any ideas on whether you would personally sell them or use rents to live on? Basically what would you be looking to do if you were in my shoes? How would you look at it? I currently work full time

Cheers

Steve

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My bias is to hold.

1// to avoid interrupting compounding

2// because we would need need to figure out where to reallocate the capital released (and that can introduce error with a new deal)

3// because I prefer to keep deferring taxes/agents fees

That's said, in terms of what I actually did in my own life... Over the last ~12 years, I've been simplifying my real estate holdings. I've sold them down gradually for different reasons.

Sometimes I needed the cash for another deal, another time I needed the cash for future living expenses, in another the city changed the zoning on a site I wanted to redevelop... each sale had its own reason. I paid a material amount of taxes as a result.

When I was younger, I nearly sold a great deal because managing it was frustrating and a hassle. In that case, taking myself out of the management position worked well and was worth the cost of a 3rd party manager.

Those are general ideas - for your specific situation, you need to map out the costs/benefits of your alternatives. For any property with cheap debt against it and/or large deferred gains, there needs to be a strong reason to sell.

Hope this helps,

G

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