Yeah, I need to look into this further. Good point.

Colt98 said:

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So on the estate tax, is it 5.4 mill per person. So I can gift that to each kid, or is that total estate value at time of death? I should know this.... All current rentals are in LLC's so I'm sure there will be some maneuvering I can do with this.

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$5.4 from you. $5.4 from your wife. Obviously if you're getting in to that sort of situation you need professional help.

CS78 said:

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Colt98 said:

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One thing I'm kind of pondering is in the 12-15 yr range, most of my current rentals will be paid off. So should I cash out and not have to deal with the hassles of being a landlord, or keep basically a nice 6 figure annuity. I think it may boil down to if either of my kids live close enough to want to continue working these assets, and how my other investments do leading up to that time.

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Financially, you are almost always better to keep them. But, at some point most of us will want to be free of them. In the last couple years, I've been focusing on trying to only keep the newest houses in the nicest areas. Hopefully this will keep things as simple as possible as the years go by. My goal is to keep a number of paid off homes and pass them to my kids. Even at their young age, I'm teaching them the basics of the rental business and how you use money to make more money that you can then spend. Hopefully, at least one kid will show an interest by the time they're responsible adults. They can take over management in exchange for a portion of the monthly profit and the estate can be split between heirs, tax free, at my death. Americans in general fail miserably when it comes to wealth management as a perpetual family thing. Money and wealth are always this big taboo subject. As the middle class continues to shrink and college degrees continue to be devalued, it will be more and more important for families to work together as a business unit. If you can get your heirs motivated about growth and thinking with a business mindset, it can provide for generations. If they all end up greedy little turds with no work ethic, then I'll just sell it all and party til I can't.

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Agree with keeping them as long as you can before the hassle factor outweighs the income.

My parents owned 3 duplex units growing up so I had the pleasure of doing much work on those as a kid (mowing, cleaning, and painting).

When my parents retired about 7-8 years ago they sold the duplexes (paid for at this point), moved closer to my brother and his kids, and immediately put that cash into 3 rental homes nearby (to take advantage of tax law which allows you to avoid tax on sale of property).

They are mid 70s and have never touched their nest egg because of these rental properties. They live totally off rental income and SS.

The big decision will come to my brother and me and whether or not we want to continue messing with these rental homes when they hand them off. I will likely pay my brother a management fee to handle my half in the form of taking less income than him since he is physically close to them.