Glad to see some justice.The next round of scams will be people raising money for new deals but then using those new funds to bail out previous deals—be it flippers who can't sell or apartment investors facing refinance rates and decompressing CAP rates.

I've seen many poor investments made with single digit cap rates and even negative cash flows in hopes of getting great appreciation. 

I am very interested in avoiding cap gains and recapture. 

Boomers RE investors have made hilarious amounts of wealth in real estate over the last 40 years because 10-Year Treasury bond yields (and therefore - cap rates) have compressed from ~15% in the early 1980’s to ~60bps in 2021.

When it comes to good cash flow, I’m usually aiming for something with strong upside potential—higher-end of the affordable market, in a gentrifying area, with a double-digit cap rate around 10%.

Or just any suggestions for the best bang for your buck areas that offer at least a little cash flow and appreciation ?

Hello Solomon,A few tips I have for you would be to first; Analyze Deals Properly – Use the 1% rule (monthly rent ≥ 1% of purchase price) and calculate cap rate, cash flow, and ROI before buying. 

So you get way better bang for your buck and there is still positive cash flow and deals that hit the 1% rule. 

The single biggest advantage of selling your homestead is that you can take all the Cap gain tax free if you have lived in the home as your homestead for 2 of the last 5 years. 

While a western WA deal might not meet some Midwest cf metric like 1%, it will be above the market cap rate or below FMV of comparibles and give you options.