But anyone who thinks that appreciation is going to bail them out of a low or negative cashflow situation is gambling, pure and simple.

Of course you would have to weigh this vs. the benefits you were getting with the better rate and writeoff from your HELOC. (3) this is just purely a mental thing that some people may struggle with - overextending yourself on your own home.

On a pure cashflow basis, this looks great (without seeing the other expenses).

Was this pure speculation... you bet.

I am considering investing in 'lots' purely as investment with no thoughts of building on it.

I spent several semesters in architecture school working on these types of projects for cities around 100,000 in population and learned that all of these ideas tossed around are purely speculation.

Actually it sounds more like they're just not too bright with their money.This whole thing seems more like just pure "salesmanship".

However, you have to understand the risks and know that most of these funds are investing purely on speculation.

Some investors may be working 80hrs/wk but that's purely by choice.

There's also buying futures on the Case Shiller index for any of 20 major housing metro markets; it purely measures changes in repeat-sale home prices, a proxy for refurb projects.