And unless your going to hold for life ( which not many do) Appreciation is where the wealth is made..

I think a lot of people are hoping a mentor/coach/RE guru, will hand hold them and they buy X amount of properties and generate X amount of dollars in rental income and they become "financially free from their W2 job" and wealthy. 

Wealth is built slowly over time, with consistent discipline.

Whatever be the strategy, if you can hold in bay area for long term without money from your pocket, you are likely to end up being wealthy. 

There is no doubt that Real Estate is a great way to become wealthy, but it will take more than one deal.  

When you are very wealthy you have lots of money but not ENOUGH TIME.

The longer that you are in the real estate investing game, the more that you realize that actual wealth is built through appreciation.

Maybe if you were super wealthy and worth 10/100's of millions it'd be good but hopefully you have the brains with that kind of money to protect your assets.Do you have any children and do you plan on helping them start their business prior to them getting married? 

buy a mult with 3% down and live in 1 unit and have the other 1 or 2 units pay the bills. rinse and repeat. get wealthy and be extra generous.

I have seen this work in high priced markets like San Jose Ca.. where the property owner is a very wealthy business person with no time for rentals and the person they sublet to is close t them either friend or bizz associate and will work the property to make  the delta as the owner just does not want to mess with day to day and there is extreme trust.The other thing I have done personally is with the insurance companies ..