I work in institutional real estate investing and I keep noticing the same gap with investors who own 3-10 properties. They have a CPA who files their returns. Maybe a financial advisor who handles their stocks. A property manager or two. An agent who calls when they want to sell something.
But nobody is sitting down and saying: your equity in Property C is earning you 4% after tax. If you 1031'd into a value-add multifamily you'd be at 12%. Here's the math on both scenarios including depreciation recapture, exchange costs, and the tax impact on your other properties.
Investors are making huge capital allocation decisions — hold, sell, exchange, refinance, pull equity out — and most of them are doing it on gut feel or back-of-napkin math. The CPA thinks in terms of taxable income, not return on equity. The financial advisor doesn't understand how depreciation and 1031s affect after-tax yield. The agent just wants a transaction.
So my questions for anyone with 3+ rental properties:
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Do you know the actual after-tax return on equity for each property you own right now? (Not just cash flow — actual ROE including appreciation, principal paydown, tax benefits, and what your equity could earn elsewhere.)
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When you're deciding hold vs. sell vs. 1031 vs. cash-out refi — how do you model it? Excel? Gut? Ask your CPA? Just hold forever and hope?
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Has anyone ever looked at your whole portfolio and said "here's where your equity is working hard and here's where it's lazy — here are the specific moves to optimize it"?
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If a service existed that did an annual portfolio review — modeled after-tax returns on each property, identified where equity is underperforming, and gave you specific recommendations with the math (sell this, exchange into that, cost seg this one, refi that one) — for $1,500-$3,000/year, would that be valuable?
Not selling anything right now. Trying to figure out if this is a real gap or if most of you feel like you've got it handled. The honest "I don't need this" answers are just as useful.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1qz9l1g/who_helps_you_think_about_returns_across_your/
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