You do. The real tricks around real estate involve depreciation, not selling. You don't sell, you just keep adding properties to your portfolio with your profit

You do. The real tricks around real estate involve depreciation, not selling. You don't sell, you just keep adding properties to your portfolio with your profits to increase your total deduction from depreciation and loan interest, and that way you never end up showing a paper profit even though the total value of your holdings is going up radically over time.