If you cannot buy it so inexpensively that you can easily double your money tomorrow, don't buy it.

I agree with you Steve Vaughan, and also Jay Hinrichs, that is a very good method to move forward in one of these situations, leniency is key, in this business, but there is a live between that and being taken advantage of. give them a time frame to get caught up and give them some social services resources to help the situation, I'm sure you will be glad you did.

Account Closed Many many investors living in expensive areas invest OOS, myself included.  

I am hoping to find an inexpensive room to rent in a safe neighborhood (I'm used to the Boulder Bubble) but within 10 miles of the Oakland airport ( I'll be commuting by bike most days to the office on Bay Farm Island).  

What originally drew me to the area was the arts district and the fact that the houses are pretty inexpensive.

As far as the stock market goes your money is at significantly more risk than a savings account and it is very volatile in the short term however over long term (10+ years) low cost index funds have proved themselves reliable, unfortunately this isn't a feasible time frame if you are saving for a down payment in most cases.

If you're in a very competitive market you may want to get the house staged (filled with furniture) for marketing purposes.If you must list it in such a way as to disclose the address (for example you list it with an agent as a rental) please spend the extra $15-20 bucks to install a simplisafe alarm system: this is an inexpensive alarm system that works over 3G cellular networks.

I reckon 3-5 years is too short a time frame to GUARANTEE continued appreciation that gets you cash flow AND a profit on sale, after taking all expenses into account - if you're paying market value, in an already hot market.

I was under the impression it's not possible to invest for cash flow in expensive coastal markets like this.

I don't want to settle for less than my full potential just because it appears as though we are living good in Omaha, a relatively inexpensive place.