[jriley]

I'll make it not a rumor, and add used car dealerships who don't appear to sell many cars. Turns out they can be an investment strategy for land.

This is from an online class I took called "Texas Essentials of Real Estate Investment".

"With the elimination in 1986 of preferred treatment of capital gains profits and accelerated depreciation allowances, real estate investments lost much of their glamour as tax shelters. However, the tax laws have preserved other sheltering aspects, including tax-free refinancing, pyramiding through refinancing, special exemptions for profits made from the sale of principal residences, installment-sale deferments, exchanges, and inheritance tax exemptions."