It was TIME to quit teaching for sure after 30+ years officially and 20+when needed

Talking college Science teaching rather than coin collecting. Both were able for us to build 6 houses over 12 years in Flagstaff we rented out to Arizona students for 22 years which we sold this summer. Of course my wife has done an excellent job handling the money and bills. This year we used the transfer to buy California housing and renting them after renewing them as they are close, all being in southern CA .

So now I can put some more time and coins into action. My son is the president of the local coin club and wife handles the money. I just talk about the coins. Our big cat has the swift claw so se controls the table top. Beware!! I do have some duplicates that I hope to reduce in numbers as time goes along.

Desertgem.

 

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Congrats on the long teaching career!

 

Congrats! Can't wait to see some coins from you.

 

Leaving academia can be bittersweet. I didn't miss the administration but I did miss the students. Best of luck with your retirement.

 

I take it you weren't an English teacher.

 

Congratulations on your retirement, Jim. Look forward to hearing more about your new ventures.

I was able to retire from full time teaching in 2008 and never really looked back. Enjoyed teaching and volunteered taught for a few years after retirement. But I had so many other interests … the ranch, coins, electronics, travel, and more … that I was never at a loss for things to do.

Cal

 

Do you or your wife manage those rentals yourself? I do, and doing it in retirement is becoming too much of a hassle. Having a mgmt company do it sucks away a lot of the cash flow though. I need to talk to someone who knows what they're doing when it comes to selling, because capital gains and depreciation recapture seem like huge hits. How did that work out for you?

 

The real trick is to never stop learning. James

 

They are. I hate it but I remind myself how much the property made me over the years. There are ways to reduce what you owe but that's where a great CPA comes in. One that's honest and has a long history with dealing with rental property.
You may be able to get credit for improvements that you did over the years. There are also ways to trade like properties but I never found a way to make that work for me.

 

Well I must admit, the threats if I left and didn't keep teaching were bad but I reached the point where I could bring in a retirement each month at around $4000+ ( due to over 30 years of teaching), so until California goes down bad, it will buy my lunch and such. In all of those years, I only missed 28 days on illness and those were almost from a slip and fall and 8 broken ribs, BUT I did my classes online Video using the internet from my bed at home and it still hurt like XX!!XX** for 4 months.

I do miss Flagstaff visits and teaching here in Calif. My wife did her part greatly. So she has a nice new Toyota Highlander and I have the older cars that I love, a ( 2002 highlander, my 2000 Toyota Tacoma and a new member, a 2008 Suzuki V6 5 seater
which is a lot of fun and capabilities. All have been repaired/restored by my former auto teacher friends and I have helped them in various "other"problems. I do have a surplus of coins and plan to start listing, asking, and explaining more on CoinTalk.
Hopefully this explains why I was not around much.
Desertgem

 

If someone is selling rental property and shortly buying new rental property, they can often postpone capital gains by doing a 1031 exchange. Talk to a tax accountant.

Rental management companies can be great or a PITA. My wife had a co-inherited house in a distant town that was rented through a management company. They were great at showing the house and providing service. That first house was sold and a second bought for a rental in our town. The new management company was great at showing it and getting it rented. Now that they are collecting their 10%, it’s zero service to anyone.

Cal

 

I'm aware of the 1031 exchange but have never understood why anyone does it, other than to relocate an investment property closer to an owner's new location, or possibly if one side of the exchange sees more appreciation in the new property's location (in which case the other side of the exchange gets duped). If the goal is to cash out, it doesn't accomplish anything that I can see.

@ldhair I see your point, but you get used to thinking x property is worth y amount and not y amount minus whatever huge percentage. My original house I've owned for 34 years and rented for 25, so it's getting close to fully depreciated (27.5 years). When that happens, it's not going to be worth zero! Every cent I've written off as depreciation will be recaptured.

Most property management companies in my small city have a reputation for screwing both the tenants and the owners. Finding a decent one does seem to be the next best step to distancing myself from it though.

The most cost-effective solution is to die. The basis resets for my heirs and capital gains goes away. What a country!

 

From what I understand, the exchange gives you a stepped up basis on the new property. You get to start over depreciating the new property. Run this by your CPA. Things may have changed.

 

From https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0110/10-things-to-know-about-1031-exchanges.aspx it appears to only delay the depreciation recapture, my cost basis on the old property rolls over to the new property (it doesn't reset), and depreciation continues as if you still owned the old property. So if I'm 25 years into depreciating the old property, I still only have 2.5 years left on the new one. There's no free lunch. You're right, I need a CPA's advice.

 

It's a game. The laws keep plugging the holes. I sold a house last year that was past the 27.5 years. I was shocked on how little I had to pay back.

 

That's encouraging, maybe it's not as bad as it sounds.

 

I sold a different house about 3 years ago. The place was really ugly looking at it from the street and few wanted to see the inside. The few offers I had were pretty low. I decided to gamble a bit and spend some money improving it.
I put a new roof on, fixed and painted all the outside woodwork, new garage door and made the yard look much better. Now I started getting much better offers.
Come tax time, the cost of improvements were added to my cost basis. At the end, I was happy with the taxes I had to pay.

 

@ldhair It will be interesting to see what a CPA says about that, since I've written off a lot of what you describe as "repairs" in previous years. As such, adding it to the cost basis seems like double-dipping. You also have to evaluate what you spend versus what you might get back in sales price, since most things return less than 100% of what you spent. If that's what it takes to get any offers at all, of course you have to bite the bullet. I do appreciate the feedback from someone who has been through it. I've never sold a property.

 

You can't use anything that was done in the past. You would have used that to reduce the taxes you paid in that tax year by showing them as repairs.
Major things like roofs, carpet or a major remodel have to be shown as a capital exp. and set up for depreciation. They can be set up for a shorter period, 8 to 12 years. Setting stuff up for depreciation actually adds the amount to your basis.
Any cost you have getting a house ready to sell goes to the basis. I'm making it sound simple but the CPA has to show everything in the proper way on your tax return. Things really get interesting if you are showing a loss on the property. It may have to be split over more than one year.

I preach getting a CPA because the tax laws are always changing.