The LIBOR is under strain since it has been abused by those in the know.

A lot of startups right now are aware of the tightening of VC and Angel money, and they're adjusting course accordingly.

The underwriting guidelines have all been tightened dramatically in the last 6-7 years, and make sense deals for well qualified real estate investors today, get turned down 60% of the time for reasons that were not even considered in the past. 

I'm currently practicing dental hygiene part-time (2 days each week), and while I LOVE what I do, the physical strain of my career has begun to take it's toll after 14+ years. 

@Robert Whitelaw   generally speaking I agree with the buy hold will win the day.. but its just cannot be a blanket statementthere was  a very big apartment owner here in PDX that rolled up all his units  and cashed in 20 million in equity.. went to vegas in 05 on a massive 1031... bought 100 million in multi there.vacancy rates as you know on fully leveraged multi  in excess of about 10 to 15% put huge strains on those and much more than that you have to feed them.vacancies in 08 in vegas hit 10 to 40%  he LOST THEM ALL.... had he just held pat on his vanilla PDX he would be fine and our stuff here has sky rocketed  must like a little brother to silicon valley real estate.. 

Have you seen many jobs lost or any tightening of the economy from the oil slow down? 

I'm looking at a multi detached home and it looks like the foundation has shifted on one side of the house causing back porch, part of the kitchen, and door jamb to shift about 3 inches down, a hole in the wall in an upstairs bedroom, mold in the basement, and strain on the basement wal-out awning.

Ben Leybovich Ben, I always enjoy your thought provoking questions, and sometimes habit of kicking the chit pile so it stinks afresh :-)Do you not think a big part of the situation is the general tightening of inventory?

Not sure how you know your agent but I would analyze it and tighten it up especially if it's been that way for three months*Disclosure - I'm am a liscenced Realtor in Hampton Roads Ryan

You should run a financial analysis to figure out if your funds will support the timeline or if you need to relax/tighten some parameters.When you do your financial analysis, look carefully at all your assumptions (rent price, vacancy, contingencies) and do some sensitivity analysis (ie. double the vacancy rate, or reduce rent 25%) to see how your model adjusts.People tend to be overly optimistic with plans and assumptions.