Does anyone actually hold a REIT while also rehabbing a property at the same time, or does the cash always end up going to the rehab?

The Cleveland thing is exactly why I stopped trying to hold liquid positions while actively rehabbing. I'm on the passive side now, LPs and notes, so I don't have that same pull, but when I was closer to the operational stuff I watched that exact dynamic eat every position I tried to build. The rehab always feels more urgent than the paper asset because it is more urgent, there's a contractor standing in your driveway. The REIT doesn't call you at 7am.

The between-projects window is genuinely the only time it works for hands-on operators, and 18k is real money in something like a non-traded or public storage REIT where you can set it and not look at it weekly. If you're in a market like Cleveland where your next deal could surface fast and need bridge cash, I'd split it rather than go all in, maybe 10k in and keep 8k as a true reserve with a hard rule that the REIT position is not a construction account. That rule has to be written somewhere, not just in your head, because February foundation problems don't care about your intentions. The guys I've seen actually hold these positions are the ones who treat that line like it's someone else's money, not a savings account with a slightly better return.