Howdy from Big Sky country

[jbrassaw]

My husband and I own a small business in Northwest Montana, specializing in rental real estate. We own and manage all the real estate ourselves. My retirement savings are all in various mutual funds, which have done well over the years. The real estate has also done very well since we purchased most of it over 20 years ago.

Since he is 10 years my senior and is already on Medicare, what do your posters think we should do first regarding tapping the real estate (taking into consideration the market these days!) or the mutual funds for income, which by their nature are more liquid? I had wanted to wait to tap my IRAs as long as possible due to the age difference, but may rethink my position given the real estate market.

Thanks for any suggestions/advice!

[Westernskies]

Welcome to the forum! There are many qualified RE types here, I am sure you will get some good advice from them. I got out of the rental property business years ago, too soft to be a landlord.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbrassaw My husband and I own a small business in Northwest Montana, specializing in rental real estate. We own and manage all the real estate ourselves. My retirement savings are all in various mutual funds, which have done well over the years. The real estate has also done very well since we purchased most of it over 20 years ago. Since he is 10 years my senior and is already on Medicare, what do your posters think we should do first regarding tapping the real estate (taking into consideration the market these days!) or the mutual funds for income, which by their nature are more liquid? I had wanted to wait to tap my IRAs as long as possible due to the age difference, but may rethink my position given the real estate market. Thanks for any suggestions/advice!

Do you need more cash flow than you are getting from your rentals and mutual funds? Or do you want to scale back a little on the work angle?

It isn't clear to me what your goals and constraints are.

Ha

[jbrassaw]

At the present time, the cash flow is fine, but we are beginning to tire of dealing with tenants and are thinking of selling off some of the properties. Our time horizon is still a little fuzzy, but I'm thinking within the next 3-7 years, we'll want to actually do something, whether it be selling properties or tapping the mutual funds.

Any advice or suggestions about a course of action?

[macdaddy]

Welcome!

Do you have any kids who would want to take over for you?

If not, my advice would be to sell now, or wait until the market improves a bit, and then sell shortly after. You do not want to be responsible for rental real estate after your late 60s. I have seen so many older folks scammed, etc.

[jbrassaw]

We do have a grown son, but he's a career Marine and doesn't want to manage real estate long distance (currently in Florida, but will be re-assigned to Okinawa next year).

Thanks for your input.

[CuppaJoe]

Good to see you here. You've got be day dreaming about traveling through your neck of the woods again. What kind of animals come up to your properties?

[jbrassaw]

We currently have a doe and her two fawns camping out on our property. During the late summer and fall, we get lots of pheasants and grouse in the yard and black bears roaming the neighborhood, looking to bulk up on garbage before hibernating for the winter. So, everyone is very careful to hide the trash cans!!