Income property certainly includes rent houses, but that is just the beginning of a long list. It is often where investors enter the world of income property, but in my opinion there are other options that scale better above the 7 figure mark.

Here is a partial list of considerations under the category of income property for buy and hold investments.
1) 1-4 family residential. This will qualify for a traditional home mortgage when making a leveraged investment.
2) Multifamily. 5+ unit apartment complex
3) Self Storage
4) Warehouse and Light Industrial
5) Single and multi tenant retail
6) Medical Office Buildings
7) RV and Mobile Home Parks
8) Farmland or Timber production
8) Almost anything that involves getting money in exchange for the use land and any improvements attached to said land.


Roles you can take:
1) Direct investor who owns the entire investment either cash or leveraged
2) Partner with another investor (DYODD and DYODD again)
3) Share of a syndication
4) Sponsor your own syndication

Under any of these roles there is a range of involvement in property management. Generally the larger the property or portfolio, the more you will hire out to professionals. We make too much money as hourly airline employees to be our own plumber, painter and leasing agent. It generally doesn't represent wise use of our time unless the work is enjoyable.

REITs generally capture all of the tax benefits within the REIT and don't pass through to the investor. There are tax benefits beyond depreciation, long term capital gains, 1031 exchanges, equity stripping and business deductions. Research the carried interest provision and you will discover a properly structured portfolio may qualify for tax treatment similar to what is typical of hedge fund billionaires. It isn't practical for just a few rental houses, but once you have a few million dollars of property it could make sense. We are talking about playing by the rules of the rich, so spend some time learning those rules...

As far as energy goes, you can invest in proven oil and gas wells for predictable cash flows. For a small speculative portion of your overall investment portfolio, you can play in the exploration and maybe even well reclamation space and claim an immediate 80% tax deduction. This is new territory for me, so I get out of my depth pretty quickly. I only know about the exploration and reclamation space as an outsider, I'm still researching my first investments. There are also some green energy tax credits that may match up with real estate investments.


Please don't trust everything you read on APC. DYODD and invest some time and money in your education. There are lots of good resources like books, podcasts, websites and conferences. Many of them are free, some will require in investment of both time and money.