Orange County rental property owners

Decades of appreciation have concentrated a great deal of wealth in single properties. Rent has generally not kept pace with value, which means many long-held rentals produce a modest yield on a very large amount of equity.

None of that is a problem in itself. Concentrated equity in a well-located California property has served a lot of families extremely well. It becomes worth examining when the owner's goals change — retirement, health, a move, or heirs who don't want to inherit a rental.

California adds its own layer: state tax treatment of capital gain, statewide and local rent regulation, and property tax rules that make holding attractive and transferring complicated. These are reasons to plan carefully, not reasons to act quickly.