I think you hit it on the head. Buy it, rent it out, wipe all your taxable profit (or at least most of it) with depreciation, and then 1031 your way into higher

I think you hit it on the head. Buy it, rent it out, wipe all your taxable profit (or at least most of it) with depreciation, and then 1031 your way into higher and higher places. You'll have zero basis on xx million of real estate if you do this correctly, and have paid little income tax along the way from the rents. My old commercial landlord did this and probably owns like 30 mid-size buildings in Oakland.