Thinking over my post #35 above I asked my self was such an investor smart or just lucky.
They did have one bit of luck, the crash was the best thing that could have happened to residential property investors who bought on margin, with interest only loans.
Due to the crash interest rates were low for 20 of those 24 years. Rents fell much less.
They survived the crash. Nothing was sold. Now they will have at least one rental owned outright. They are rolling the dice with Pepper though. But they could be in the same boat next year with another 30k + rent in the bank.