Apollo AdvisingRentals in retirement
If you are retired or close to it, your rentals may need to work differently than they did when you bought them. We help you decide whether to keep, simplify, or sell.
Short answer. Look at each property on its own. Keep the ones that earn their keep with little of your time, simplify the ones that do not with management or a strategy change, and consider selling or exchanging the rest. The goal is predictable income and a workload you are comfortable with.
What changes when you retire
The properties that made sense at 45 may not fit at 70. Tenant calls, repairs, and turnovers take more energy, and predictable income matters more than growth. At the same time, many long-time owners have large equity and a low tax basis, which makes selling a decision worth getting right.
Property by property
We look at each property on its own: what it earns, what it costs in time, what it needs in the next few years, and what selling or exchanging it would involve. Some owners keep their best property with professional management and sell the rest. Some change one property's strategy. Some decide to hold everything and simply hire help. The goal is a plan you are comfortable with.
Questions we work through
- Which properties are worth the time they take?
- Would professional management or a strategy change make holding easier?
- What would selling or exchanging each property look like?
- How do reserves and risk change as I simplify?
What you leave with
- A property-by-property view of keep, simplify, or sell
- The open tax and legal questions for your CPA and attorney
- A practical order of operations
This covers real property only. Apollo Advising does not advise on retirement accounts, annuities, investment portfolios, or Social Security.
Bring this decision to a session
$199 per hour, billed in 15-minute increments, or $499 for a three-hour block. The first 30 minutes are free.
Related questions
I'm retired and own rental properties. Can you help me decide what to do with them?
Yes. Many retirees want less work and more predictability. We lay out the options for each property, such as keeping it with professional management, changing strategy, selling, or exchanging, and what each would require, so you can decide with the numbers in front of you.
Should I sell my rental property or keep it?
It depends on how much equity is tied up, the cash flow after realistic reserves, the taxes a sale would trigger, how much time the property takes, and what you would do with the money instead. We model the keep, sell, and exchange scenarios side by side so you can compare them, and give you the tax questions to confirm with your CPA.
Is a 1031 exchange worth it?
Sometimes. A 1031 exchange can defer capital gains tax when you sell investment real estate and buy like-kind property, but it comes with strict deadlines (45 days to identify replacement property and 180 days to close) and you take on a new property and often new debt. We help you weigh the tradeoffs and timing and prepare questions for your qualified intermediary, CPA, and attorney. We do not act as an intermediary.
Go deeper
Return on equity: the rental number most owners never checkHow to calculate it, why it drifts down as a property appreciates, and what it does and does not tell you about selling.The 1031 exchange timeline, step by stepThe 45-day and 180-day deadlines, the identification rules, and what to line up before you list.This page is general education, not legal, tax, investment, insurance, or lending advice. See our disclosures.