Appreciation will be the icing on the cake.

Born and raised here in Anaheim. 

Out there condos are selling on average 3 weeks as opposed to preemptive offers being accepted regularly just over a year ago.However, condos in Hayes Valley are selling like hot cakes.

@Glenn Gerisch  here are three I know foreclosures are long and expensivePA  IL  NY  and thinking NJ is not a cake walk.. states you like ( well I like) .. are  WA OR CA NV MS TN GA TX  and I did one quickly and cheaply in Kansas city not sure if it was MO or KS    one just needs to check the state statues.. but by and large a mortgage state and judicial foreclosure state are more expensive and time consuming..

You missed some serious stuff and cake/pie, tonight.

My goal is to provide my own retirement funds through RE investments, and then any extra retirement funds (or social security, if there is such a thing in 30 years) from other employment would just be icing on the cake.

then your off and running someone else is paying your mortgageONe very important point to all of this and I think the post  08 GFC creating a huge shift in thought process of what a good investment is and what a bad one is.How many times do we hear folks say... appreciation is icing on the cake blah blah blah. and its all about cash flow.and we forget about the power of your tenant paying your mortgage off and your tax write offs.. those that try to reach for the highest cash flow deals usually end up with the least over time and the worse asset.. those that understand that real estate is location location location and you want your tenants to pay off your house.. there is not enough velocity of positive cash flow to substantially affect someone's life unless they can buy 10 to 50.. what you want is a solid property that your tenant pays off so that in 20 or 30 years you own it free and clear that's when you cash flow and or you have an forced savings.For bay area investors.. how many would have liked to buy in Cupertino or Palo Alto or any other peninsula area when homes were 100k ( 1980 and just let the tenant pay off the mortgage ) even if you had to feed it a little over the years. what would you have in 2010 when your 30 year mortgage was done.. ????? 

Talk about having your cake AND eating it too!

Hey, friends my name is David I'm from Anaheim, California.

Cash flow is but a small slice of that total return, it is the "icing on the cake" :)