While fears of a bubble have some merit, the thing people are overlooking is that all those homeowners who had their homes foreclosed on in 2009 are going to be able to buy houses again here in 2016-2017.

Otherwise how will you know how to analyze the merits of their proposition?

Sure this option has its merits, but not for me.I'd love to know if someone has been in a similar situation and what you've done to resolve it and how it went.Many thanks!

When I read the subject of the initial post, I envisioned a short, compressed, quick worksheet to determine if a deal merits further investigation.

I am generally new to the concept of real estate investing, and have been quickly compelled as to its many merits. 

I invest passively with professionals as well...both are good models and have their merits.

You should also know the value of capital - both your opportunity costs and the discounted cash-flow of the business - and have an exit strategy - or strategies - in-place before you purchase.These "rules of thumb" will, at best, allow you to quickly triage properties to eliminate those which merit no further investigation, but are not things on which I would be basing decisions to spend my, or my partners', money.

There are several different types of material you can use (e.g. railroad ballast, crushed concrete, etc) and they each have their own prices, qualities, and shortcomings, so your specific site may merit a certain type.Asphalt costs vary, but I have had various quotes over the last 3 years for different properties - quotes to cover 500 square feet for $3,000, 10,000 square feet for $20,000, and 30,000 square feet for about $60,000.  

We are debating the relative merits of a 1031 exchange with the proceeds, vs just biting the bullet and paying the 15% capital gains.

It may have more merit than anything else.