I went to an real estate investment club meeting and heard shawn watkins speak and I am completely sold.Are you in the Orange County or LA area?

I am going post this one and it's going to be long (sorry in advance).When reading the discussion, I think it is devolving into debating the merits of apples, oranges, bananas and grapes all at the same time.

they worked, and took their money and invested it into apartments and homes..and now they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor...just like i take the profits from my flips and invest them into rentals,and as james plans to...it's very difficult to live on a few rentals, especially if you plan to buy more...plus, the bank wants to see additional income until you have a subsantial amount of rentals...however, if you work at it long enough, eventually you can be a buy and hold only guy, as i plan to be in a few years :)

The thought of comparing real estate to a stock portfolio is apples and oranges, in RE that "equity" is preceived to be higher but in reality it's at your cost less depreciation and the only way to get money out of the walls is to refinance it or sell it.

I'm in the 10th year of a similar project here in Denver. 25 homes acquired so far.My involvement with the neighborhood association has started to bear fruit - folks know I'm the "go to guy" for an off-market sale.

Is Las Vegas a different market than Orange County, Calfornia ?

The low hanging fruit do not hang for long.

I live in Orange County, CA so I will check their website.

We too are in Orange County, as are many others on BP.

My current location is Los Angeles/Orange County so not rural but there still are an ample amount of what I would call community-banks.